Tens of thousands march in London to call for release of hostages
Supporters rally under banner ‘United we bring them home,’ for largest pro-Israel gathering in UK since October 7; speakers include relatives of Hamas captives

Tens of thousands of people marched through London Sunday, calling for the return of Israeli hostages held captive by terror groups in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Under the banner “United we bring them home,” the peaceful rally garnered some 40,000 participants, according to organizers, making it the largest pro-Israel gathering in the UK since war erupted in Gaza after the terror onslaught.
There were no reports of violence or arrests at the march, which set out from Central London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields and ended at Whitehall, accompanied by police guard. Supporters waved Israeli flags and held placards with photos of the hostages.
Family members of hostages joined the march, including relatives of Omer Neutra, who has been held captive since October 7, and the parents of Sgt. Oz Daniel, whose body is held in Gaza.
“It’s very hard for us to travel the world and to speak to people. But we cannot just sit at home and cry,” Daniel’s father Amir Daniel told the BBC.
At the culmination of the event, yellow balloons were released, the color that has been adopted to symbolize the plight of the captives, usually in the form of yellow ribbons.

Along with the hostages’ families, speakers included the former head of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Stuart Polak, and Prof. Daniel Shek, former Israeli ambassador to France, according to the BBC.
“You can really see that London stands with Israel today,” Orly Goldschmidt, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in London, said in a video posted to X. “It’s been 240 days since our hostages were taken by Hamas terrorists into Gaza and we need to do everything to bring them home back now.”
Huge march in London now to free the hostages who have been held in Hamas dungeons for 240+ days! Brits stand with Israel, and against Hamas jihadis!! pic.twitter.com/HuyCl69rcu
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) June 2, 2024
The march took place in parallel with the annual Israel Day parade in New York City, which also marked the largest pro-Israel gathering there since October 7, but was also held under heavy security.
Since the outbreak of war, launched when Hamas terrorists carried out a massacre inside Israel on October 7, UK Jewish residents say they have come under increased attack and have cited fears around repeated pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel marches through London that feature people glorifying Hamas, and anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.

Though the pro-Palestinian marches have been largely peaceful, a British counterterrorism official said in March that the protests had made the streets of London “a no-go zone for Jews every weekend.”
British Jews say they have been subject to verbal abuse by some pro-Palestinian supporters since October 7, and there have been recorded incidents of physical violence as well.
The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians.

It is believed that 121 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 37 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.