In Johannesburg, numerous traffic jams occurred on Friday as thousands of pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy trade office, waving Palestinians flags and banners criticising Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

However in Paris, French police banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday after protesters last weekend tried to storm two synagogues in the capital during a similar rally, according to Agence France-Presse news agency.

President Francois Hollande, during a visit to Niger on Friday, said the march would have been a "risk to public order". "We cannot allow the conflict to be imported into France. We cannot have demonstrators [from opposite sides] facing each other down, with a risk to public order," he said.

The organisers of the march, meanwhile, said they were taking legal action to overturn the ban but that it would be defied regardless of the outcome.

In Istanbul, riot police used water cannons to stop hundreds of pro-Palestinian Turks who were staging a protest rally outside the Israeli consulate after Israel launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

However, from Jakarta, Indonesia to Berlin, Germany, pro-Palestinian protesters have been staging demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians and in condemnation of Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza.