In the Bulgarian town of Madan, close to 1000 people took part in a peaceful protest on January 2 2009 against the latest developments in the Gaza Strip, Focus news agency reported.

Shefket Hadji, a spiritual guide at the local mosque said, as quoted by Focus, that, organized in only two or three days, the protest was "provoked by the inhumane way in which people treated one another in that part of the world".

Known as a mining town, Madan is a mountainous settlement of about 7000 residents, located 120km south of Plovdiv and 30km west of Smolyan. Even though predominantly Muslim, Hadji has underlined the fact that people in Madan expressed their feelings as citizens and human beings, and not only as Muslims.

However, with this protest, the Muslim community of the region was urging for the cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and condemning attacks on civilians, Hadji said.

Protesters from Roudozem, Chepintsi, Smolyan and some nearby villages joined Madan's. After several speeches were delivered, the imam (religious leader of the town) read a protest declaration, which on January 5 2009 will be sent to Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, and to the Palestinian and Israeli embassies.

After the protester gathering, Hadji said that Muslims in Madan would say special prayers in hopes for the conflict to be soon resolved.

Demonstrations against recent Israeli operations the in Gaza Strip were also held in Delhi, Moscow and London. In the Indian capital, in front of the historical mosque Jama Masjid of Delhi, angry Muslims burnt a dummy of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, bTV reported, citing foreign media.

In Moscow, protesters waved Palestinian flags in front of the Israeli embassy, chanting slogans for Russia to break off diplomatic relations with Israel. Some of the protesters were later arrested, bTV said.

Singer Annie Lennox joined British comedian Alexei Sayle and Bianca Jagger at a news conference in London on January 2, during which a panel of public figures demanded that Israel stop its "siege". Lennox will participate in a planned demonstration in London on January 3, when thousands of people are expected to rally for an instant end to the "slaughter and systematic murder" of Arabs in the Gaza Strip.

In the end of December 2008, Israel carried out missile attacks in Gaza in retaliation for attacks in southern Israel. Israeli media reports said that its attacks, which killed more than 225 people, were the start of a sustained offensive against Hamas.