Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have set fire to the wall of the Israeli Embassy in Mexico City, after clashing with riot police who were deployed to keep them away.
Around 200 people gathered outside the compound in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood on Tuesday for the ‘Urgent Action for Rafah’ demonstration. An Israeli airstrike killed at least 45 Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza on Sunday.
Protesters wearing scarves over their faces threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the riot police and stormed the barricade erected to block their access to the diplomatic mission.
Videos shared on social media show police struggling to put out the burning wall of the compound, with protesters trying to set the embassy on fire and clashing with the security forces.
Mexico has filed a declaration of intervention with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in support of South Africa’s complaint accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Last Friday, the UN court ordered the Jewish state to “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide and said its operations in Gaza are in full compliance with the ICJ ruling. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) argued that the deaths at a refugee camp in Rafah were caused by shrapnel hitting fuel tanks during Sunday’s legitimate strike on Hamas militants, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described civilian deaths as “a tragic mistake.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the IDF intends to press on with the attack in Rafah to destroy Hamas and free all the hostages taken in the Palestinian armed group’s October 7 attack against Israel last year.