An activist group has staged a demonstration on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for ceasefires in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.
The demonstration by HK Anti-war Mobilization on Saturday was met with pushback from two passers-by, who told the demonstrators they “know nothing,” according to local media outlets The Collective and InMedia.
The demonstration came a month after the International Court of Justice – the principal judicial body of the United Nations – ruled that Israel’s acts in Gaza could amount to genocide, and ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide and ensure the delivery of aid to civilians in Gaza.
The group of five held a silent protest on Saturday, holding up placards that read “ceasefire now” and “Gaza stop the massacre.” One placard stated that Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision aided Israeli surveillance.
See also: ‘It’s mostly women and children’: Hong Kong surgeon speaks of treating wounded Palestinians in Gaza
The demonstrators read out a statement calling for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, and for Israel to order a ceasefire and end its blockade of Gaza.
Anti-war action
“We support the armed resistance and self defence of the Ukrainian people in the face of the invasion by its authoritarian neighbour; we support the anti-war movement within the borders of Russia, and call on Russia to immediately release all anti-war protesters and order a unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine,” the group said.
“Israel must order a ceasefire and withdraw its forces, and immediately lift its longstanding blockade on Gaza!” the statement read.
According to local media reports, two passers-by told the demonstrators: “You know nothing.” They said Hamas, the militant organisation responsible for the attack last October 7, had taken Israeli civilians hostage.
In an Instagram post issued after the demonstration, the group said it opposed the “indiscriminate abduction and killing of Israelis” by Hamas, but that such actions did not justify the “massacre” in Gaza.
Police officers at the scene took down the demonstrators’ personal information, local media reported.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began in response to an attack by the militant group Hamas last October 7, which according to Israel’s official figures killed over 1,200 people. Almost 30,000 people in Gaza have been killed by Israel’s military advance, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Since then, schools, hospitals, mosques, universities, and residential areas have been destroyed and most of the population displaced in what Oxfam describes as the deadliest war of the century.
A Hong Kong doctor who recently returned from a humanitarian mission to the area told reporters earlier this month that “the absolute majority of wounded people, from what I saw, were women, children, and elderly people.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel was working to obtain an outline for release of hostages, “as well as the completion of the elimination of the Hamas battalions in Rafah” – the city at Gaza’s southern border which now hosts more than 1 million displaced Palestinians.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, while 180,000 Russians have been killed in the war.
Russia, meanwhile, does not disclose its military deaths, which it classifies as state secrets.
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