"Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in Venice to show solidarity with the people of Gaza on Saturday, coinciding with the Venice Film Festival. Footage shows posters chanting 'Gaza, we are coming' as crowds marched with large flags, smoke flares, and a Palestinian woman, while police monitored the event. People were also seen marching through the streets waving Palestinian flags, chanting slogans, and carrying banners reading 'Stop genocide' and 'UN, where are you?', amont others. "Israel is responsible, with the complicity of international governments. Too bad it seems to me that this state [Italy] continues to sell weapons to Israel, which are being used in this genocide against the Palestinian people," one demonstrator said. Another protester added, "If the goal was ‘let’s put Palestine at the centre of the Venice Film Festival’s agenda,’ today we have achieved it." The Gaza conflict was a major discussion point leading up to the festival, sparked by an open letter from the Venice4Palestine group calling on the festival to take a more vocal stance against the Israeli government. The letter had over 2,000 signatories, including Mexican director and film producer Guillermo del Toro, known for his work on 'Frankenstein'. The Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian group launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping more than 200 others, according to Israeli officials. Israel's subsequent military operations in Gaza have killed more than 63,300 people and injured over 159,800 others at the time of publication, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health."