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© EPAProtesters gather during a pro-Palestinian demonstration against the Israeli army's attacks on the Gaza Strip outside the Israeli embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, 21 July 2014.
Several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded a halt to military action in Gaza during a peaceful protest near the Israeli embassy in the Cypriot capital.

Monday's protest was organized by left-wing trade unions and peace groups and included Turkish Cypriot activists from the ethnically divided island's breakaway north.

Riot police standing behind a cordon of barbed wire-topped fences prevented marching protesters from approaching the embassy's entrance.

Some protesters burned a hand-painted Israeli flag.

Organizers condemned the bloodshed in Gaza and urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop the fighting.

Source: The Associated Press