Pro-Palestine activists arrested in London amid sit-in protest

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Police arrested numerous pro-Palestine activists after they attempted a sit-in protest in central London on Saturday.

Activists from Youth Demand staged a demonstration at the central Jubilee Gardens, near the landmark London Eye, to protest Israeli attacks on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and demand an end to arms shipments to Israel.

Carrying Palestinian flags and signs, the group chanted pro-Palestinian slogans in solidarity with the Gazan people.

Speaking at the demonstration, Hala, a protester from Gaza, said that not only children but everyone in northern Gaza is facing hunger and disease.

A photo that was sent to her from the strip, she said, shows a person who weighed 80 kilograms (176 pounds) and lost half of that to hunger and disease, ending up at only 40 kg (88 lb).

Saying that pregnant women have to choose between their own death and that of their offspring, Hala added that a friend of her from Gaza learned that she lost her father in January and his body has yet to be found.

Following the speech, hundreds of protesters started marching, but officers chased the group, blocking their access to the streets.

When they went to York Road, some of the demonstrators started a sit-in protest, blocking traffic, followed by a number of arrests.

The activists continued to chant pro-Palestinian slogans during their arrest.

On X, London’s Metropolitan Police said the protesters “were already subject to conditions not to leave the pavement and a number of them have been arrested for breaching those conditions."

Youth Demand said in an earlier statement that they would both hold a march and sit-in and when police ask them to move they "will not going anywhere."

"We must have the courage to say 'NOT IN OUR NAMES' and mean it," said the statement.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas which killed about 1,200 people.

Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its onslaught nearly eight months ago. The majority of those killed have been women and children, with more than 82,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.