Thousands join pro-Palestinian rally in Geneva

Several thousand people demonstrated in a pro-Palestinian rally in Geneva on Saturday as Israel readied troops for an expected invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Police and organisers said around 6,000 people attended, national broadcaster RTS reported. The Tribune de Geneve newspaper gave the same figure.

Protesters marched behind a banner reading "Free Palestine" and chanted "Long live Palestine" and "Israel: assassins", while dozens waved Palestinian flags.

Demonstrators marched under heavy police escort.

Cardboard placards read: "What you're calling 'self defence' is actually a genocide", "End Israeli apartheid", "Boycott Israel" and "We want peace in Palestine and not a Palestine in pieces".

One boy held a placard reading: "Save the children of Gaza".

Israel pummelled northern Gaza with fresh air strikes on Saturday, one week on from the deadliest attack in its history, as it urged Palestinians to flee the area before an expected ground offensive against Hamas commanders.

There has been no let-up in Israel's response to the Hamas fighters' dawn raid, which saw them break through the heavily fortified border and gun down, stab and burn to death more than 1,300 people.

On the Gazan side, health officials said more than 2,200 people had been killed. As on the Israeli side, most were civilians.