Around 100 demonstrators gathered at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland to unfurl a shroud bearing the names of 60,000 people killed in Gaza since the war began two and a half years ago, marking the latest instance of pro-Palestinian protest at a major film festival. Organiser Dr Michele Ghielmini of Swiss Healthcare Workers Against Genocide said the group was politically unaligned and chose Locarno because it draws large numbers of Swiss attendees, including from the German-speaking region, who they felt had been less engaged with the issue than French- and Italian-speaking Swiss.

The protest, agreed in advance with festival organisers and police, took place peacefully without disrupting the event; a sold-out screening of Olivia Wilde's "The Invite" drew over 8,000 people to the Grand Piazza an hour later. The banner had previously been displayed in Amsterdam and outside the Swiss Parliament in Bern, and protesters distributed literature urging the Swiss government to pressure Israel to open Gaza's borders to aid and media, allow injured civilians medical treatment in Switzerland, and impose sanctions over alleged Geneva Convention violations. Unlike Berlin's festival earlier this year, Locarno has largely avoided related controversy, hosting Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi's documentary "Revolutionaries Never Die" and Asmahan Bkerat's debut "Concrete Land" alongside participation from Israeli producers in industry events.