Pro-Palestine group in Tunisia to besiege US embassy over 'complicity' with Israel's genocide of Gaza

Tunisia's Joint Coordination for Palestine has urged citizens to surround the United States Embassy in Tunis, denouncing Washington's "complicit support" for Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The appeal, issued on Monday under the slogan "For Gaza, let us besiege the Embassy of Death!", comes amid growing anger in the North African state over the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the Israeli army has killed more than 59,000 people.

Gaza's healthcare system has collapsed under Israeli bombardment, and the remaining population is being systemically starved.

"Enough silence in the face of genocide", read the statement, which described Israel's 21-month military campaign as "a war of extermination and mass starvation" and accused the US of enabling it with "blatant and absolute" support.

The call comes at a time when Gaza is facing near-total blackout by Israel, with border crossings sealed, aid convoys barred, and people being gunned down while seeking food or collapsing from hunger.

International efforts to broker a ceasefire have repeatedly stalled, while Israel continues to frame its genocide as a fight against the Hamas group.

In Tunisia, the war has reignited a powerful wave of popular solidarity with the Palestinian cause, one that has spilt from university campuses and union halls into the streets.

Protesters have rallied outside Western embassies and Israeli-linked institutions in recent months, often clashing with security forces.

The group behind the latest call to blockade the American embassy had previously organised Somoud land convoy to break the siege on Gaza. Haftar-aligned Libyan authorities halted the convoy in June, arresting several participants before releasing them after they agreed to return to Tunis.

Now, as the group prepares to launch the Somoud Flotilla—a new maritime convoy—it is also calling for escalated forms of protest to pressure those supporting Israel to change course.

This latest mobilisation, the group says, is an explicit demand to blockade the US Embassy, "the backer of the executioner, the one who arms him, and the one who withholds medicine and water."

"Let the streets of Tunis become an extension of Khan Younis, Gaza, and Rafah. Let us besiege the sponsors of death," the group added in its message to the Tunisian public.

While the group has previously protested in front of the embassy, it now aims to organise a multi-day sit-in outside the highly secured diplomatic building. No start date has been announced yet.

Social media reactions have been largely supportive, though some have called for redirecting the protest to the Egyptian embassy, citing Cairo's role in blocking the March to Gaza in June.

In June, Egyptian authorities arrested and deported hundreds of activists who had arrived in Cairo to peacefully march towards the Rafah crossing, seeking to push for aid entry into the besieged strip.

For its part, the Tunisian government has issued strong statements condemning the war and has repeatedly reaffirmed its support for the Palestinian people.

But activists argue that official rhetoric falls short of what the street demands, particularly the long-promised law criminalising normalisation with Israel, which has been shelved multiple times.

Many are now calling for the protest to be shifted to the Tunisia parliament to pressure lawmakers to pass the legislation finally.

"The United States is the only power capable of stopping the genocide in Gaza", said activist Ghassan Ben Khelifa, responding to the online debate over where the protest should take place.

The leftist activist, currently on trial for "offending others via social media," in what his colleagues say is a politically motivated case, argued that peaceful demonstrations alone would not sway Washington.

"Only when its strategic interests are threatened, regionally and globally, might [the US] reconsider."

"That's why civil resistance must escalate, targeting US institutions through mass protests, sit-ins, and blockades, with a clear demand: the full severing of diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural ties with the US, which bears primary responsibility for the bloodshed," added in a Facebook post.

As of now, neither Washington nor its envoy in Tunis has issued an official response to the call to blockade the embassy. Security around diplomatic buildings in the capital has remained tight since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.