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Thousands of protestors advocating for Palestine’s cause marched through London, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the march commenced from Parliament Square just before 1 pm on Saturday, winding its way through Whitehall before concluding at Hyde Park.
The event unfolded after the cancellation of a planned “Walk Together” demonstration by the Campaign Against Antisemitism due to safety concerns.
Throughout the march, participants chanted slogans such as “stop bombing Gaza, stop bombing children,” while displaying placards saying “hands off Gaza colonisers”.
Notably, the pro-Israel counter-demonstration proceeded peacefully, with demonstrators expressing their stance with Israeli and British flags alongside banners saying “Hamas are terrorists”.
Amidst the demonstrations, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist of the Metropolitan Police asserted that pro-Palestinian protests had not escalated to a level warranting concerns of serious public disorder.
The Metropolitan Police disclosed a total of 450 arrests since the onset of pro-Palestinian marches, with 193 related to antisemitic offenses and 15 tied to terrorism-related suspicions.
The financial cost of policing these protests, which commenced in November of the preceding year, amounted to approximately £38.5 million. Saturday’s demonstration marked the 13th national protest organized by the PSC, drawing varying crowd sizes ranging from 300,000 to 5,000-10,000 participants.
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