Tens of thousands attend pro-Palestine march in London

Tens of thousands of people marched on the streets of London on Saturday to condemn Israel’s continued assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 45,000 people in the besieged enclave. 

Starting from Park Lane, marchers held Palestinian and Lebanese flags with signs that condemned the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for his arrest following the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him.      

Marching through the heart of central London, the protesters ended their demonstration in Whitehall, outside the home of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street. 

Protesters heard speeches from Palestinian activists, prominent NGOs operating in Gaza and British parliamentarians calling on Britain to impose sanctions on Israel. 

Among the speakers was Ahmed Mokhallalati, a Palestinian doctor, who shared first-hand accounts from Gaza and urged the British government for humanitarian intervention to end the bloodshed. 

“As history has shown, acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing and brutal aggression do not sustain an occupation. On the contrary, the more force is used, the less effective it becomes, ultimately accelerating the collapse of such oppressive regimes,” Mokhallalati told protesters. 

“These actions often serve to hasten the end of the occupation rather than secure its longevity.”

Organisers said the march attracted more than 125,000 people who marched to demand Britain end its “complicity with Israeli war crimes”.

The organisers who hosted Saturday’s march included the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain.

Before the protest, the London Metropolitan Police posted a warning on X to protesters, reminding them that expressing support for Hamas and Hezbollah was a criminal offence as they are proscribed terrorist groups under British law. 

The police said there would be a “highly visible” police presence at the rally and added that it would be managing counter-protestors from Stop the Hate, a pro-Israeli protest group that accuses the Palestine protest of “supporting terror”.