Hundreds protest at State department

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Hundreds protest at State department
« Thread Started on Dec 30, 2008, 7:16pm »

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Hundreds protest at State department
Posted: 05:32 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A crowd of several hundred people gathered outside the State Department Tuesday afternoon, calling for an end to U.S. support of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Organizers said the event — at which protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and “Stop the killing! Stop the war!” — was one of 20 rallies scheduled for Tuesday in cities across the United States.

“The real victims of terror are the Palestinian people,” said speaker Brian Becker of the Answer Coalition, an anti-war group formed in 2001.

Scores of protesters carried Palestinian flags and signs reading “Stop the holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop U.S. aid to Israel.”

A line of more than 40 Washington, D.C. police officers kept the protesters off the street in front of the State Department.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes into Gaza on Saturday in response to missiles fired into Israel by Hamas militants. An estimated 375 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory by the strikes — most of them militants, according to the Israeli military.