Thousands of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters marched in central London on Saturday, despite the announcement of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at ending the war in the Strip.
Demonstrators held signs with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” seen by many as a call for Israel’s destruction, and a placard comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The crowd chanted “Israel is a terror state” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” while marching to Whitehall, where many British government buildings are clustered.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) group organizing the protest, said that the ceasefire announced earlier this week had no bearing on the demonstration.
“We know Israel is capable of breaking the ceasefire at any time, as it has done on every previous occasion,” Jamal claimed in a statement. “And we know this ceasefire based on [Donald] Trump’s plan does nothing to address the root causes of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine, and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
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A group of counterprotesters waving Israeli flags blared loud music as the main demonstration marched toward Whitehall.
A counter-protester is talked to by police officers as anti-Israel protesters take part in the 32nd ‘National March for Palestine’ since October 2023, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in central London, on October 11, 2025, (Henry Nicholls/AFP)
According to The Telegraph, a counterprotester holding a sign reading “we stand with Britain’s Jews” was moved out of the area of the protest by police. London police said a “small number of arrests” were made during scuffles between the two groups.
“I’m here with my friends to help show that there is, continuously, eyes on Gaza, even considering the current ceasefire,” said 23-year-old sociology and psychology student Katrina Scales, one of the anti-Israel protesters.
She added that a ceasefire was “not enough,” and that she planned to keep attending marches.
Trade unionist Steve Headley, in his fifties, was also skeptical of the newly inked deal. “Hopefully now we’ve got the first steps towards peace, but we’ve been here before,” he told AFP.
Headley questioned Trump’s “plans for a ‘riviera’ in Gaza” that the US president had touted earlier this year, before seemingly abandoning.
Fabio Capogreco, 42, who was attending his fifth demonstration with his two children and wife, said the ceasefire was “too little, too late,” adding that those complicit in the war needed to be held accountable.
“Hopefully it’s one of the last times we need to come here to manifest,” said the bar manager. “But I think it’s too early to say everything is okay.”
The recently signed hostage and ceasefire deal was announced by the US president early Thursday and approved by Israel’s cabinet that evening. It provides for a ceasefire and the release of the 48 hostages still held by terror groups in Gaza, after the IDF partially withdraws from the enclave.
In exchange, Israel will release 250 Palestinian terror convicts who are currently serving life sentences, as well as 1,700 Palestinian security inmates detained amid operations in Gaza over the course of the war.
The deal is only the first phase of a larger framework for long-lasting peace in the Gaza Strip, whose provisions have yet to be hammered out by Israeli and Hamas negotiators.
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