Police use tear gas and water cannons on Gaza protest in Geneva

Police sprayed tear gas on protesters in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday evening who were marching in support of the Gaza flotilla, eyewitnesses tell Reuters, which the police confirmed.

“We were retreating and suddenly got heavily gassed,” a eye witness tells Reuters, describing a burning sensation in their eyes and difficult breathing.

Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Geneva and Bern, as well as in Italy and Colombia on Thursday.

A photo shared with Reuters by a eyewitness in Geneva shows a large plume of white smoke coming from a street filled with protesters, which they described as tear gas.

Tear gas,water cannons trucks. it was peaceful and ended ugly..shame .. there was no reason for what happened..they could have used microphones to disperse people.. no one knew what was happening.. they caged people from all side.Geneva came out in solidarity with Gaza 02.10.2025 pic.twitter.com/0NoOoQyEE3

— Dr. Hana S. El-Gallal د. هناء القلال (@hacare) October 2, 2025

A second eyewitness tells Reuters that they saw a large white vehicle spray water on the front line of protesters, which a video shared by the Swiss national broadcaster RTS also showed.

Alexandre Brahier, spokesperson for the Geneva police says that around 3,000 people, mostly adults and young men had joined the protest.

“We had to use control measures including tear gas and water cannons,” he says, adding that protesters were not carrying dangerous arms but were “throwing things”, causing some damage to property spraying graffiti.

Such confrontations are rare for Switzerland although pro-Gaza protests have been gathering momentum in recent weeks.

“Large protests are to be expected in big cities but it’s not every day that we need to resort to control measures like this,” Brahier adds.

Mobile phone footage shared with Reuters shows flares being thrown amidst the crowd, as hundreds of people moving down a crammed street in central Geneva.