Several arrested as thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in London

Police vowed 'zero-tolerance approach to hate crime' ahead of march, reiterate ban on masks; pro-Israel group leads small counterprotest

By AFP and ToI Staff 10 October 2026, 10:03 pm
People cross Westminster Bridge as they take part in a march organized by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in central London, on October 10, 2026. (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)

Several thousand pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters marched through central London on Saturday, calling for an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza three years after Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Marchers carried placards reading “End the genocide” and “Free Palestine” as they made their way along the route near the British Parliament.

The “National March for Palestine,” organized by the Palestine Coalition, came three days after the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.

The war ended with a ceasefire a year ago, but Israel has continued regularly targeting Hamas operatives in strikes whom it says are planning attacks or attempting to rebuild the terror group’s capabilities. The strikes have killed 1,450 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Ahead of the march, London’s Metropolitan Police said it would be using powers under public order legislation to require anyone wearing a face covering to deliberately hide their identity to remove it.

“We will take a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and other offending,” said senior Met officer Carl Galvin.

Police said they made “several arrests” at the march, including a man and a woman with placards of support for the banned organization Palestine Action.

“We are here today to mark three years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” Aimee Shalan, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told AFP. Israel rejects allegations of genocide, says it makes efforts to avoid harming noncombatants and accuses Hamas of fighting from among civilians.

Shalan said UK-led Western sanctions over West Bank settler violence did not go far enough, calling for “full sanctions on Israel.” The sanctions, announced last month, banned British trade with the settlements and drew an angry response from the Israeli government, leading a UK consulate in Jerusalem to be downgraded to a diplomatic mission this week.

Recent graduate Hibo Hassan, 23, said she was at the anti-Israel march to show her solidarity.

“Although it is happening in the Middle East, it affects us here now,” she said. “It’s extremely dystopian and that is something we should be all scared about.”

Another protester, a 32-year-old Kosovar immigrant who gave his name as Kobe, said his own experience of war made him want to “stand up today and not let history repeat” itself.

A small counter-demonstration was organized by Stop The Hate UK, a Jewish-led, pro-Israel campaign group. The protest alleged that police acted more strictly toward pro-Israel demonstrations than toward pro-Palestinian ones.

The group said in a social media post ahead of the march, “Jewish people have the same rights as everyone else in this country: to assemble, to protest, to be heard.”

The anti-Israel march came days after the UK’s far-left Green Party passed a motion declaring that Zionism is racism, and calling for Israel to be replaced by a Palestinian state.

It also came three days after hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied on the third anniversary of the October 7 attack. Dozens of marchers also wore masks during that rally, contravening the police ban, and several were arrested.

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