Several thousand people rallied in Algiers and across the country on Thursday in support of the Palestinians and to denounce Israel's ongoing strikes in the Gaza Strip.
They were the first rallies to be authorised since the pro-democracy Hirak protests ended in 2021, with marchers hitting the streets in anger over Israel's bombardment of Gaza which has so far killed over 3,700 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Popular support
The bombing campaign comes in response to Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks that saw thousands of fighters infiltrate the border by air, land and sea. At least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, the majority civilians, since the attack, according to authorities.
"The people and the army are with you, Palestine!" shouted demonstrators as they marched towards Martyrs' Square in Algiers, holding banners with slogans reading: "No to the murder of children, women and civilians."
The march came two days after a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital compound which Hamas says killed hundreds of people, blaming Israel.
But Israel has said the carnage was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket in a claim backed by US President Joe Biden.
"It was good the government approved this march, we were about to explode with rage watching the daily bombardment of Gaza," said Sarah Omari, a 22-year-old student at the University of Algiers.
"We couldn't stop crying and shouting in the face of a world that allows Israel's crimes," she said. Throughout the capital, Palestinian flags were flying everywhere alongside Algerian flags, with the march there and in other locations across the country broadcast on public and private television channels.
Traditionally a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, Algeria has cancelled all cultural events in a show of solidarity with Gaza, including the annual festivities of November 1 when it marks the outbreak of the 1954-1962 Algerian war for independence.
It has also suspended all football matches "until further notice".
And political support
Algeria's foreign minister Ahmed Attaf on Tuesday also called on the international community to support the Palestinians, with whom he said Algeria stood in full solidarity as the Israel-Hamas war intensifies.
Speaking at the 20th session of the ministerial meeting of African and Nordic countries in Algiers, Attaf said "Our brothers in the Gaza Strip are living in deplorable humanitarian conditions."
He said Algeria "calls on the international community to take urgent action to come to the aid of the oppressed and persecuted, to put an end to this aggression and to relaunch the peace process."
The meeting of African and Nordic ministers is taking place from October 16 to 18, under the theme of "strengthening dialogue based on common values".
On Monday, Algeria's Supreme Security Council issued a statement stressing "its rejection of the occupation operations against defenceless civilians" and emphasised its solidarity with the Palestinian people.
They added their conviction that"the radical solution does not lie in genocide or forced displacement, but rather in establishing the Palestinian state."
Spreading to the rest of North Africa
The conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has triggered a wave of pro-Palestinian solidarity across North African countries, with demonstrations not only in Algeria but in Libya and Morocco.
Morocco officially recognised Israel in 2020, but blamed Israel for the strike on a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds, as did Egypt, which became the first Arab country to normalise relations with Israel in 1979.
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