Thousands of Karachi residents on Sunday gathered on the city’s main roads for Gaza solidarity marches organised by two religio-political parties, where the participants expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s bloody military offensive.

The Israeli offensive, which began in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023, has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the housing and hospital infrastructure in the enclave. The death toll is feared to be much higher due to thousands still missing under the rubble.

These marches come two days after large pro-Palestinian protests were observed in cities across Pakistan.

The rallies were organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on main Sharea Faisal and Sharah-i-Quaideen, respectively, according to press releases issued by the parties.

According to the JI’s press release, people from all walks of life attended the demonstration, called by party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, including representative bodies of lawyers, teachers, traders, doctors and other professionals.

“One of the two tracks of Shahrah-e-Faisal was dedicated to women and children. Sculptures of dead bodies of innocent children in Gaza were placed under the overhead bridge,” the release read. “Screens were also placed on the occasion.”

According to the JI, Naeem delivered the keynote address and said that Karachi had “once again proved that it represents the entire Muslim world”.

“The people of Gaza were facing unbearable pain, around 70,000 people were killed in Gaza, [a] significant majority among them were of women and children,” he was quoted as saying.

“The role of the United Nations has vanished. Israel, with the support of the United States, was blowing apart innocent children with ruthless bombings, whereas the UN was passing useless resolutions and statements.”

The JI chief warned Muslim world leaders that Israel would threaten them after it was finished with its campaign in Gaza, the press release read.

He demanded that Pakistan’s political leadership “take the lead in global measures” and urged them to “invite all like-minded people to a single platform in order to devise a joint global strategy” against Israel.

“Take all the possible steps and don’t think of any measure as small,” Naeem was quoted as saying. “Every deed counts, be it funding, a tweet, a video message, a direct call or anything else.”

Addressing the rulers of Pakistan, he urged them to “shun the hypocrisy”.

“Our leaders always use the economy as an excuse when they are asked to take drastic steps in the right direction,” he was quoted as saying.

“The option of accepting Israel was also presented to the founders of Pakistan but they had responded, ‘Our soul is not for sale’,” he said, warning that if they did not change their stance, “history would not forgive you”.

According to the press release, Naeem urged the residents of Karachi to continue the boycott of Israeli-made goods, saying that social media platforms would be used against them just like another tool, but their products would not be consumed to hit their economy.

He also announced a countrywide shutter-down strike in the country on April 22 in solidarity with Palestinians.

Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said, “Our struggle against Israeli aggression and to express solidarity with the Palestinian people will continue,” according to his party’s press release.

Addressing his ‘Death to Israel’ march, Fazl was quoted as saying that Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had a clear stance that Israel is an illegitimate state and nobody can disagree with that position.

“It is our duty to provide moral, diplomatic and all kinds of assistance to the Muslims of Gaza,” Fazl was quoted as saying. “The Palestinian people are not alone. We are with them until the last drop of blood.”

Protesters at both marches, numbering in the thousands, were seen waving Palestinian flags and placards with anti-Israeli slogans. Giant banners with Palestinian slogans were also seen at the demonstrations.