Police disperse pro-Palestine demonstrators near Sants train station in Barcelona after 7,300-person protest

Thousands of students blocked traffic in Barcelona city center, around Plaça Universitat, on Wednesday morning, as part of the general strike in solidarity with Palestine taking place across the country.

After walking down Gran Via to Sants train station, demonstrators tried to access the station, with Mossos d'Esquadra police pushing students away.

A general strike was called for October 15 across Spain, with UGT and CGT labor unions calling a partial strike.

There were scenes of tension between protesters and police at Sants station after 1pm after students marched all the way from Plaça Universitat.

At first, demonstrators tried to push the police back away from the crowd, with riot vans reversing out of the square outside the train station.

Shortly after, more than one hundred police officers in riot gear charged at the protesters, completely breaking up the group, dispersing the crowd into the neighborhood nearby. 

Protesters threw stones and large objects at Mossos officers, and blocked streets with several containers.

Demonstrators ran away after attacking one of the fast food chains in the train station, a McDonald's restaurant which suffered some damage. On the way to the the train station, demonstrators attacked a Burger King with stones and fireworks on Tarragona Street.

Before that, it had been a peaceful march after students started blocking traffic around Universitat Square. There were 7,300 demonstrators according to Guàrdia Urbana police.

Students demonstration

Several students stood in the middle of Gran Via boulevard, stopping traffic on one of Barcelona's main streets ahead of a demonstration there at 12 pm, in the presence of local police.

Cars and buses were forced to reverse out of the area and were diverted to adjacent streets.

The demonstrators, most of them students, carried a large banner with the slogan 'Against genocidal imperialism. Free Palestine'.

The route then marched from Universitat down Gran Via before arriving at Sants station.

At the gathering, trade union leaders explained to the media that the strike was going "well" but that they didn't yet have official figures to report. 

They pointed out that the labor force across the country has been "weakened" by strike participation as "Israeli soldiers continue to kill the Palestinian people" and "humanitarian corridors remain closed." 

"This is the third ceasefire. This is not about ultimatums; this is about really condemning genocide," Montse Sànchez, a member of the CGT labor union, said. 

Their aims for the strike are "peace for the Palestinian people, self-determination, and that the Israeli army and all the companies that are waiting there like vultures leave Palestine."

A spokesperson for the far-left pro-independence CUP, Non Casadevall, said the peace deal was "good news," but that "it is not the end of the conflict" and "it cannot erase the two years of occupation and destruction" in Gaza.

Furthermore, he criticized that the Spanish government "has not yet broken formal diplomatic relations" with Israel, or imposed a "real" arms embargo.

He also demanded that those responsible "for the destruction and massacre" seen in Gaza be brought before international courts of justice.

From the early hours of the morning, workers blocked access to the Zona Franca industrial estate, Mercabarna wholesalers, the Port of Barcelona, as well as numerous main roads in Barcelona and across Catalonia.