{"id":798343,"date":"2026-10-10T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T18:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798343\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T18:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T18:36:08","slug":"thousands-gather-in-london-to-express-support-for-palestinians-after-three-years-of-genocide-israel-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798343\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather in London to express support for Palestinians after three years of \u2018genocide\u2019 | Israel-Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people have gathered in central London to express their support for Palestinians after three years of \u201cgenocide\u201d carried out against them by Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators, many wearing keffiyehs and holding Palestine flags, gathered on the Embankment at midday on Saturday. Some carried placards reading \u201cEnd the genocide\u201d and \u201cFree Palestine\u201d as they marched towards parliament. A bride and groom appeared<\/a> to be among those in attendance and a two-minute silence was held to reflect on the lives lost in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan police said 20 arrests had been made, including for criminal damage after demonstrators climbed on to the Battle of Britain memorial, having Palestine<\/a> Action placards, making a Nazi salute and assaulting police as officers made arrests.<\/p>\n

Protesters were calling for the UK government to stop supplying arms to Israel, which various bodies \u2013 including the UN, Amnesty International, B\u2019Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, the latter two of which are Israeli-based \u2013 have said is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Protesters at the National March For Palestine. Photograph: Guy Smallman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A ceasefire was declared a year ago but Israeli airstrikes have continued in Gaza. In the last year, the overall death toll has risen<\/a> by a further 1,400 people. Settlers have also ramped up their attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. According to UN figures, 230 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers in 2025.<\/p>\n

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, shared a video from the march on social media. \u201cThree years on, Israel\u2019s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank continue, and so does the solidarity of the British people. Louder, bigger and not going anywhere. Thank you all,\u201d he said. By Saturday afternoon, organisers said<\/a> 250,000 people were at the march.<\/p>\n

The Met have imposed conditions on the event \u2013 which is organised by the Palestine Coalition, which has organised more than 30 mass demonstrations since October 2023, with a counter-protest by Stop The Hate \u2013 to \u201cminimise the risk of serious disruption to communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Met posted on X saying: \u201cThe front of the procession has now entered Whitehall where a rally will take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral arrests have been made so far including a woman and a man with placards declaring support for proscribed organisation Palestine Action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also arrested a number of protesters on suspicion of criminal damage after they climbed on to the Battle of Britain memorial on Victoria Embankment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The national march is the first held since the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements and declared the UK government would take the official position that Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank<\/a> was unlawful in its entirety. He also told the Commons that settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

A pile of placards at the end of the pro-Palestinian protest march through London to mark the third anniversary of the war in Gaza. Photograph: Toby Melville\/Reuters<\/p>\n

At Labour party conference last month, Miliband appeared to reference the marches<\/a>, which at their peak regularly numbered hundreds and thousands of people, telling the audience in Liverpool: \u201cI want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you, you were right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy assistant commissioner Carl Galvin said: \u201cWe know Saturday\u2019s event, so close to the third anniversary of the terror attack on Israel, has the potential to have a greater impact on communities than the previous national marches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galvin, who is leading the policing operation this weekend, said the force\u2019s presence on Saturday will be \u201csignificant\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will also be using powers under the Public Order Act requiring anyone in the protest area wearing face coverings to deliberately conceal their identity to remove them,\u201d Galvin continued.<\/p>\n

The Met have imposed conditions on the march and require the group to travel via Westminster Bridge, York Road, Waterloo Bridge and The Strand on to Whitehall, with a rally concluding by 6.30pm. The force has said that any speeches and music must conclude by 5.30pm.<\/p>\n

A counter-protest by Stop The Hate is also taking place, with about 30 people gathered outside New Scotland Yard, some with flags.<\/p>\n

The force has also imposed conditions on the demonstration \u201cto minimise the risk of serious disruption\u201d. The demonstrators must remain within a designated area outside the Met\u2019s headquarters, with the assembly concluding at 2.30pm.<\/p>\n

People clash with police officers during the pro-Palestine march in London. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, on the third anniversary of the 7 October attacks, when Hamas militants broke across the Israeli border to launch a wave of attacks on kibbutzim, border towns, military bases and music festivals, killing at least 1,209 people, a small pro-Palestine student demonstration in central London<\/a> was held.<\/p>\n

The Met publicly appealed to those behind the demonstration to \u201cexercise [their] right to protest on a different date\u201d and admitted that finding the organisers had been \u201cfrankly difficult\u201d. In the end, it went ahead and about 100 people attended. Five people were arrested for breaching conditions imposed on the march.<\/p>\n

The Palestine Coalition organising the march includes Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, CND, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al Aqsa and the Palestinian Forum in Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people have gathered in central London to express their support for Palestinians after three years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}