Thousands of pro-Palestinian activists come out to protest in London

Thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday, to protest over the recent week of assaults on Palestinians and airstrikes in Gaza. 

People marched in from Hyde Park, making their way to the Israeli embassy. 

Shouting slogans, the protesters denounced the Israeli army’s recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and the imminent eviction of a number of families in the occupied east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 

Speaking to Middle East Eye, a number of protesters expressed their anger at the injustice many Palestinians have faced, and called on governments to take action on the escalating situation on the ground. 

“Today we are here to protest the atrocities that are taking place in Palestine by the Israeli government and the terrorism that is being comitted,” one protester said. 

“We want them to stop illegally evicting people from places like Sheikh Jarrah and stop terrorising Palestinians at al-Aqsa, where people are just trying to worship.”

“We’re watching a massacre and no one is doing anything...it’s awful,” another protester told MEE.

At least 139 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, and over ten in the West Bank.

The mass protest comes on the anniversary of the Nakba in 1948, or the Catastrophe, where at least 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel.

This week, protests in solidarity with Palestine have taken place around the world, including in New Zealand, Italy, Iraq, Germany, Syria.

Meanwhile, in France, planned protests were banned.

Earlier this afternoon, Israel bombed a 12-storey building in Gaza used by a number of news outlets including Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.

The bombing of the building came after Israel gave people a one hour ultimatum to leave, with many people being forced to leave behind their belongings and equipment. 

Mohammed al-Hajjar, a photojournalist for MEE, was among those who left the building.