Thousands of Karachi residents took to the streets on Sunday for Gaza solidarity marches organized by two religio-political parties, expressing support for Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing military offensive.
Empty Stadium in Karachi during PSL Vs Flooded streets of Karachi during Gaza March pic.twitter.com/8Pa0wI3IeA
— Ahmed (@ThisahmedR) April 13, 2025
The Israeli campaign—launched in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack—has reportedly killed over 50,000 Palestinians and devastated much of Gaza’s housing and healthcare infrastructure. With many still trapped under the rubble, the actual death toll is feared to be even higher.
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These Karachi marches followed widespread pro-Palestinian protests held across Pakistan just two days earlier. According to press releases, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) led separate rallies on Sharea Faisal and Sharah-i-Quaideen, respectively.
The JI stated that a diverse range of participants—lawyers, teachers, traders, doctors, and others—attended the event called by party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman. One track of Shahrah-e-Faisal was reportedly reserved for women and children, with symbolic sculptures of dead Gazan children displayed under a bridge and large screens set up for the occasion.
In his keynote address, Naeem stated that Karachi had once again shown itself as a representative of the wider Muslim world. He claimed that around 70,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in Gaza and criticized the United Nations for its ineffective response. He accused Israel, backed by the United States, of indiscriminate bombings, while the UN merely issued “useless resolutions.”
He warned that once Israel’s Gaza campaign concluded, other Muslim nations could be threatened next. Naeem urged Pakistan’s leaders to spearhead a global strategy against Israel and emphasized that every action—from tweets to financial support—mattered.
Calling out Pakistani rulers for “hypocrisy,” he recalled that Pakistan’s founders had rejected the notion of recognizing Israel, saying, “Our soul is not for sale.” He encouraged continued boycott of Israeli goods and announced a nationwide shutter-down strike on April 22 to show solidarity with Palestinians.
Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, addressing a ‘Death to Israel’ rally, reaffirmed his party’s commitment to resisting Israeli aggression. He quoted Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s view of Israel as an illegitimate state and emphasized Pakistan’s moral, diplomatic, and all-round support for Palestinians.
Both rallies saw large crowds waving Palestinian flags, holding placards with anti-Israel messages, and marching under massive pro-Palestinian banners.