Hundreds of people gathered in Ljubljana on Saturday at a peace protest staged by the Slovenian Muslim community, urging the Slovenian authorities to condemn the violence in Gaza. The protesters also displayed posters, banners and held photos pointing to the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip.

The protest was, among others, addressed by Human Rights Ombudsman Zdenka Cebasek Travnik, former Slovenian mufti Osman Djogic and Janez Kozamernik of the Slovenian Amnesty International.

I want to send a message that every voice counts, that each of us can tell and request from and send a message to the people who decide on peace and war to stop the slaughter in Gaza and elsewhere in the world. This is why I'm here, for them to see that I care, Cebasek Travnik told STA.

Speaking at the protest, the ombudsman pointed to the obligation to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, primarily its first article, which speaks about all human beings being born free and equal in dignity and rights.

"We gathered here today to help stop the violence in Gaza, to say loudly that we are not only silent observers, to say that we expect and demand from our leaders to send on our behalf a clear message to the world: the killing of innocent citizens of Gaza should be put to a stop," Cebasek Travnik told the rally.

"This is a message that we are with the people of Gaza, with the victims of Gaza, with those who are victims of brutal violence. This is not a political rally. We don't support either side in the political sense, because this issue is very complex. This is a message of support to victims of brutal violence that is taking place today in Gaza," Djogic told reporters.

He told the protesters that "we are not here to speak with hatred, we came here to response with our dignity, we came here to tell the murderers of the innocent, of women and children, that our dignity prevents us to be on their side, regardless from where they come."

The protesters held banners reading "Stop killing Palestinian children", "New Holocaust in Gaza", "If they'd kill animals, all the world would object. But they kill children!" and carried Palestinian flags and photographs of killed children.