Thousands of Londoners and political figures marched in the British capital on Saturday during a pro-Gaza rally marking the first anniversary of the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Waving placards and Palestinian and Lebanese flags, demonstrators rushed into the center of the British capital late in the morning, noted an AFP journalist.
At the head of the procession in particular, the former Labor leader Jérémy Corbyn (now independent) and the former Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf.
“Stop the bombings”, « Free, free Palestine » or even “Stop bombing hospitals” were among the most popular slogans chanted by the demonstrators who marched peacefully.
“There needs to be a ceasefire, a ceasefire now. How many more innocent Palestinians or Lebanese must die? »asked Sophia Thomson, 27, who was demonstrating with friends.
“The fact that there are so many of us shows that the government does not speak on behalf of the people”she added.
The Prime Minister “Starmer has blood on his hands”, “Starmer, Starmer you can’t hide we’re going to charge you with genocide” were also among the slogans cited by the crowd.
A similar demonstration was underway on Saturday in Dublin, in the Irish capital.
Numerous protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have taken place over the past year in London.
A demonstration in memory of some 1,205 people killed during the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 is to be held in London on Sunday.
The London police announced on Friday the mobilization of a large police force to supervise these two demonstrations.
In response to the October 7 attack, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in Gaza, where at least 41,825 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry.
At the same time, the situation has seriously deteriorated in Lebanon. On Monday, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the south of the country, one of the strongholds of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, supported by Iran.