Ankara-based students rally in support of Gaza rallies

Dozens of Ankara-based students gathered Sunday at Ankara's Sıhhiye square to show solidarity with anti-occupation rallies along border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Several Turkish and foreign students took part in the event, which was organized by the Ankara's Free Belief Platform in cooperation with Ankara-based Palestinian students.

"We gather today to show solidarity with the Palestinian people who have been defying the Gaza blockade for weeks," the Platform's head, Mustafa Sinan, said in a statement.

"Every day, there are Palestinians being killed by the Israeli occupation," he said, going on to call on Muslim and Arab countries "to act responsibly to alleviate the suffering of our brothers there".

Since March 30, Palestinians have been rallying along Gaza's eastern border to demand the right to return to their homes in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

At least 49 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured by cross-border Israeli gunfire since the rallies began.

The rallies will culminate on May 15, which will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" or "The Catastrophe."

"We came here to send several messages, most importantly, to our brothers in Palestine who are demanding the right to return and break the decade-long siege," Mohammed al-Sheikh, an organizer of the event, told participants.

"To the Israeli occupation we say that our right to return is inalienable and is backed by the world's free people," he stressed.

Mohammed Hafiz, a Yemeni student in Gazi University, joined the rally to show support for Palestinian protests against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

"I am here to support my Palestinian brothers as I am totally convinced of the importance of the ongoing 'Return March' in Gaza," he told Anadolu Agency.

"Although we have a crisis in Yemen, the Palestinian cause remains among our top priorities," he said.