Photo/Illutration Protesters call for an end to Israeli military strikes on the Gaza Strip at a rally in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on Nov. 19. (Kazushige Kobayashi)

Shouts of “Save Gaza” echoed at a Nov. 19 demonstration in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward attended by around 1,500 people calling on Israel to stop its bombardment of the Palestinian city, organizers said.

Rallies featuring Palestinian flags and pleas for a cease-fire have been held around Japan, but Israel has continued the airstrikes in its war against the Hamas Islamist militant group.

The estimated death toll in Gaza has exceeded 13,000 since fighting began in October.

Before the evening demonstration in Shinjuku, Hanin Siam, 26, said through a microphone on a podium that a hospital in Gaza where she was born had been bombed.

“I can’t believe what’s happening right now. How many more people have to be killed before this world changes?” she asked tearfully.

Aoi Sakamoto, 20, a third-year university student in Tokyo who visited Israel and Palestine as a volunteer in March this year, joined the demonstration because “to remain silent is to be complicit in the massacre.”

Holding up a placard with the words, “‘Little’ is not ‘nothing,’” Sakamoto said, “I want to believe that this step could definitely lead to a cease-fire.”

Ken Takada, 78, one of the organizers of the rally, said: “I cannot remain silent when I see the devastation in the Gaza hospital that was bombed. I want to call for a cease-fire as soon as possible.”

A demonstration calling for a cease-fire the previous week in Tokyo’s Shibuya district attracted 4,000 people, according to organizers.

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