Several thousand people have taken part in a Palestine solidarity protest in Belfast demanding sanctions against Israel.

The demonstration was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign as part of a series of protests in towns and cities on both sides of the Irish border.

In Dublin, protesters marched from the US embassy to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Other protests were staged in Londonderry, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Navan, Carlow, and Waterford.

Mary Kelly attended the Belfast protest with her sister and other members of her family to show support for the people of Gaza.

“What’s going on is absolutely disgusting,” she told BBC News NI.

“We’re watching every day – on alternative channels to be fair – at what’s happening live in our faces.

“We’ve been here years doing this, we’re just wondering when it’s ever going to stop.”

Ms Kelly added: “It’s just horrific – horrific crimes going on while the world is watching. It’s heartbreaking actually.”

Eftaima Najjair from Portadown, County Armagh, was also among the protesters.

“Showing solidarity is very important and coming out today, even as a Muslim-Arab lady, looking at all these different people from different places – young, old, babies, elderly – it really gives a lot of hope for the future,” she said.

“This is about humanity, it not about just the Palestinian people.

“It’s about our humanity and looking at these people who are starving… just sitting back home doing nothing is not an option,” Ms Najjair added.

“So the least we can do is come out in solidarity and show that we’re here and that we really care and that we’re trying our best.”

Belfast protester Orla Wallace said she believed “people power makes a difference” in registering the strength of public objection to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“I think there’s nothing more important right now in the world,” she said.

“We’re witnessing a live-streamed genocide, and we’ve got to do everything in our power to stand up and to object to it and we can do that with people power.”

The Israeli government has long rejected accusations of genocide and says its defence forces target terrorists and never civilians.

Demonstrators at the Belfast protest walked through the city to BBC NI headquarters to express dissatisfaction at BBC coverage of events in Gaza.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attack in 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.

At least 64,300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The ministry also said 376 people have died during the war so far as a result of malnutrition and starvation.

In Londonderry the protest march began on Bishop Street and made its way through the city to finish at Guildhall Square.

Hundreds of people took part, with many waving Palestinian flags.