Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in central London in support of the Palestinians, despite British police warning that anyone expressing support for the Palestinian resistance movement would be subject to arrest.
The participants, who gathered near the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), this morning, began a march in the British capital before the demonstration in the afternoon near Parliament and the residence of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street.
Some raised Palestinian flags and banners with slogans including “Freedom for Palestine,” “Stop the massacre,” and “Sanctions for Israel,” as the march made its way toward the arrival point, where a number of speeches were scheduled to be delivered.
Ismail Patel, head of the “Friends of Al-Aqsa” campaign, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse during the demonstration: “I believe that all just people in the world, and not just in Britain, must stand up and demand an end to this madness,” adding, “Otherwise, we may witness... "The next few days are an unfolding disaster."
The demonstration comes at a time when Israel is escalating its war to destroy Hamas' capabilities, relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip and mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers in preparation for an expected ground attack on the Strip.
This came in the wake of the attack launched by the Palestinian resistance, last Saturday, which witnessed hundreds of resistance fighters crossing the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip to take hostages and kill more than a thousand people in the streets, in their homes, or at a concert.
Ahead of the protest movement in London, the Metropolitan Police announced that it would deploy more than a thousand officers, with reverberations of the events taking place thousands of kilometers away in Britain and elsewhere.
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- Agencies