The Eta killer Juan Ignacio de Juana Chaos – still wanted in Spain – was among thousands of protestors who marched through the city centre at the weekend.

Also in the 2,000-strong crowd was the IRA's Brighton bomber Patrick Magee who targeted Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet in 1984, killing two men and three women. He was released from jail in 1999.

IRA Maze escapee Bobby Storey was also demonstrating in Belfast on Saturday as Israel dropped thousands of leaflets on the Gaza Strip, warning it would escalate the fighting.

Stormont Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson called on the march organisers, the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU), to "apologise to the people of Spain" for the presence of fugitive de Juana Chaos, who is on bail fighting extradition back to Spain, where he is wanted for allegedly encouraging acts of terrorism.

He was arrested in Belfast last year, after Spain issued an arrest warrant to the UK authorities.

Mr Donaldson said: "The trade union movement has to ask serious questions about why these rallies attract people associated with the murder of innocents."

He claimed the attendance of such supporters was "gross hypocrisy" and added: "The union cannot have it both ways."

The DUP condemned the march as anti-Israel and pro-Hamas.

However, in a speech to the marchers Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the ICTU, said Northern Ireland divisions should not be reflected in debates on the Middle East.

"Remember your humanity and forget everything else," he said.

"It is our humanity which is affronted by the images from in and around Gaza, not our narrow identities in divided Belfast."

Protestors also went to Marks & Spencer in Belfast and tried to take Israeli-sourced foods from the shelves.

Police arrived at the Donegall Place store just before 3pm and escorted demonstrators off the premises after two women tried to put items through checkouts without paying.

The marchers, who packed Royal Avenue at 1pm, carried banners from trade unions, Amnesty International, Palestinian groups, the SDLP, Sinn Fein and other republican groupings.

Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Tom Hartley said: "The full-scale military assault on Gaza has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, including the slaughter of women and children. Our demands today are simple: The war in Gaza must end now."

Representatives of the four main Christian Churches have condemned violence by both Hamas and Israel.

See Morning View, page 16, and

Steven McCaffery, page 17