Anti-Israel protest in Paris (archive)
Anti-Israel protest in Paris (archive)Reuters

Leftist and pro-Palestinian Arab activists rallied in Paris on Wednesday to urge Israel to end its airstrikes in Gaza, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

About 300 protesters gathered near Napoleon's tomb in central Paris, waving Palestinian flags and photos of people killed in airstrikes.

Some banners read "No to the massacre in Gaza," according to the report.

Police watched carefully and the protest wound down peacefully, AP noted, unlike several demonstrations last month in France that unleashed the worst tensions between France's Muslim and Jewish communities in years.

Protests in Paris during the earlier round of fighting in Gaza were initially banned but held anyway and descended into chaos.

Similar demonstrations saw hundreds of Muslim extremists attacked a major synagogue in Paris, provoking clashes with Jewish youths who rushed to defend the site and worshippers trapped inside.

There have been anti-Israel protests throughout Europe, including many which have descended into anti-Semitism. In Berlin, footage of one such protest showed hundreds of demonstrators chanting in German, “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight on your own”.