Israeli attacks on Gaza's Rafah protested in London

By Zuhal Demirci

LONDON (AA) - Pro-Palestine demonstrators have staged a protest in the British capital to decry the Israeli attacks on Rafah, calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Gathering outside of the Prime Minister's Office in Whitehall on Monday, the crowd criticized the UK government for being complicit in "Israel's war crimes" in the Gaza Strip.

Carrying Palestinian flags, the protesters held various signs, including "Stop bombing Gaza," "Cease-fire now," and "Free Palestine."

Chanting slogans like "Rishi Sunak (prime minister), shame on you," "Keir Starmer (main opposition leader), shame on you," they called on the government to end arms sale deals with Israel.

Speaking at the rally, John McDonnell, a Labour Party MP, pointed out the killing of children in the besieged enclave and said this is a "tragedy."

"Children are being killed at the moment and they are being killed with weapons supplied by this government," he noted.

Referring to concerns, expressed by British politicians, including Sunak and Starmer, McDonnell stressed that anyone other than calling for an immediate cease-fire is "complicit in these war crimes."

For her part, Lindsey German, the head of the Stop the War Coalition group, said Israel wants to get rid of the Palestinians from the West Bank and "ethnically cleanse and drive out the Palestinians from historic Palestine."

"We know, the children are being bombed, like poor Hind (Rajab), ... her family were bombed in a car when the ambulance tried to rescue her.

"This is not an accident. This is deliberate genocide of a whole people and they want to get rid of the Palestinians from Gaza," she added.

The protest took place after Israel announced its plan to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza, which is home to more than 1 million people seeking refuge from the war.

The planned offensive has sparked widespread concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, the Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed more than 28,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling this January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.