US police arrest 325 anti-Israel protesters blocking New York City tunnel, bridges
Videos on social media show protesters chanting, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’; banners at Holland Tunnel call to ‘Lift the siege on Gaza’

US police arrested several hundred anti-Israel protesters who were blocking several New York City bridges and a tunnel on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the three-month-old war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
Dozens of chanting demonstrators sat at entrances to the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges across the East River, as well as at the Holland Tunnel connecting New York City with New Jersey across the Hudson River, local media reported.
Police arrested 325 demonstrators, a New York Police Department spokesperson said, and all of the locations were cleared before noon.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the right to protest does not give people the right to block bridges.
“The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city, some people are not just driving to and from, across our bridges to go to their place of employment, some of them are dealing with some real emergency-type issues,” Adams said.
Video footage posted on social media showed protesters chanting: “NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same,” referring to the New York Police Department, Ku Klux Klan and the Israel Defense Forces, and, “From the river to the sea,” a slogan used by supporters of Hamas and others to demand Israel’s destruction.
Protesters locked themselves to tires, chairs, and each other, on the Brooklyn Bridge, which links the borough of the same name with the Manhattan financial district.
Dozens of police, some wielding bolt cutters and white plastic cable ties, encircled a group of detained protesters who were lined up on the bridge for processing.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Palestine protestors take over the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and Holland Tunnel to demand an end to the ongoing American-funded, American-led genocide of the Palestinian people in #Gaza pic.twitter.com/StNZwDkaSV
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) January 8, 2024
War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages — mostly civilians.
Protests against Israel quickly broke out worldwide as it responded with an air and ground campaign, vowing to destroy the Palestinian terror group. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting so far, though these figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of the terror group’s own rocket misfires.
Protesters at the Holland Tunnel on Monday also carried banners that said “Lift the siege on Gaza,” “Ceasefire Now” and “End the occupation.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Holland Tunnel, said on its website that the lanes to New Jersey were closed “due to police activity.”
The protests, which came shortly after the morning rush hour and caused backed-up traffic across the city, were organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, among other advocacy groups, they said on X, formerly called Twitter.

“It’s important because we need a ceasefire. It’s important to disrupt day-to-day activity to show how important this is, to end the siege in Gaza,” said protester Olivia Levine, 31, an actor and writer.
“Hopefully, actions scale up. Day-to-day activity needs to be scaled up to secure a ceasefire and the end of occupation. This is just the start.”
“The siege on Gaza needs to end and I’m ready to put my body on the line to end it,” said another protester as she was led away by a police officer with her hands behind her back, video showed.
The protests were organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, among other groups, they said on X, formerly Twitter.