A DEMONSTRATION in support of the Palestinian and Iraqi people was held near the Kanoo mosque in Muharraq yesterday.

Scores of people attended the gathering, spearheaded by the National Justice Movement, which was publicised in various mosques across the country during Friday sermons.

National Justice Movement member Abdulla Hashim and several local imams spoke on the recent bloody Israeli incursion into the Gaza strip, and the case of Iraqi Abeer Qassim Hamza.

Abeer is said to have been raped and then murdered along with three members of her family, including her five-year-old sister, by a recently discharged US soldier who served in Iraq.

The demonstration was held to serve as a "wake-up" call to people over the continuing violence in the Iraqi and Palestinian territories, organisers said.

Meanwhile, the Bahrain Society for the Resistance of Normalisation of Ties with Israel has received calls for help from Palestinian civil and medical establishments, said a report in our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

A number of Palestinian families have also sought food and medicines following a siege placed on the occupied territories by the Zionists, said society vice-president Badriya Ali.

The society has launched a solidarity campaign following the latest appeals.

"We have urged women's societies in Bahrain to hold an urgent meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation and how to send the donations to the Palestinians," added Mrs Ali.

She urged commercial and banking establishments in the kingdom to give generously to ease the suffering of the Palestinians.