By Anadolu Agency 

Pakistan (AA) 

Thousands of children marched in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Thursday in a show of solidarity with Palestinians as a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas took effect in Gaza.

Girls and boys, mainly school-going students, along with their teachers and parents, gathered near Faisal Mosque, as part of a fresh wave of protests across Pakistan.

Hundreds of women, many of them carrying their babies, also attended the rally.

The march was organized by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the country's mainstream religiopolitical party, in solidarity with Gaza children.

The party also held massive Gaza rallies in the port city of Karachi and northeastern Lahore last week.

Waving Palestine flags, and carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans like "Down with Israel," "Long live Palestine," and "Hamas we are with you," many children carried portraits of deceased Hamas leaders, including Ismail Hanneyeh and Yahya Al sinwar.

Addressing the rally, JI chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said the people of Pakistan stand alongside Palestine and Hamas.

"Whatever decision Hamas takes, Pakistanis will back that," Rahman said, urging the government to allow the resistance movement to open its office in Islamabad.

Pakistan has seen massive protests in support of Palestinians since Israel's latest invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

Several Pakistanis, including former Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, were part of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attacked by Israeli forces last week.

Khan, who was detained and later released, is expected to return home later on Thursday from Jordanian capital Amman.

Release Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam from Israel

Rights activists demanded the release of globally acclaimed Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, along with all other 150 humanitarians who were part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and arrested by Israeli forces on Wednesday.

In a statement, New Delhi-based writer Arundhati Roy, New York-based scholar Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Cape Town-based playwright Mike van Graan, Kathmandu-based journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, and dozens of others also demanded the release of thousands of Palestinians who are being held in Israeli prisons without trial.

They called for a complete end to the occupation and genocide in Palestine.

US President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have signed off on the first phase of a US-proposed deal aimed at ending the war in the besieged enclave.

Hamas announced early Thursday that it has agreed to the first phase of Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, appreciating his efforts along with those of Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt.

The ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas early Thursday in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, based on a plan presented by Trump, and has already taken effect.

The deal was announced after days of negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the Red Sea city.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 67,200 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered the enclave largely uninhabitable.