Another day of protests in London over Israel-Gaza conflict after police arrest over 500 people
10. August 2025
Several hundred people marched in London on Sunday to demand Hamas release the Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza, criticizing Britain’s plan to recognize Palestine as a state, Agence France-Presse reported.
Joined by several relatives of the hostages, the march ended at the 10 Downing Street office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has said the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a truce in its war with Hamas.
Many of the protesters waved Israeli flags or wore yellow ribbons, a symbol of solidarity with the hostages, whose liberation the organizers of the march argue should be the Labour leader’s priority.
Among those who attended the rally Sunday is Noga Guttman, a cousin of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David, who was featured in a video that enraged Israelis when it was released by Hamas militants last week. The video showed an emaciated David saying he is digging his own grave inside a tunnel in Gaza.
Ayelet Stavitsky, sister of dead hostage Nadav Popplewell, and Adam Ma’anit, cousin of Tsachi Idan, who died while held by Hamas, also were in attendance, according to AFP.
Hamas-led militants kidnapped 251 people when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Some 50 of the hostages still haven’t been released, of whom 20 are thought to be alive.
“I think that the government got it wrong with its foreign policy, that it’s time for it to correct and refocus on the hostages,” said Ma’anit, criticising Starmer’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state in September.
Three people, identified as counter-protesters, were arrested, two of them for alleged violent acts, police said.
Sunday’s march came a day after supporters of a pro-Palestinian group that was recently outlawed as a terrorist organization intentionally broke the law to test the government’s ability to enforce the ban. London police said that 532 people were arrested Saturday.
The vast majority of those detained were arrested for displaying placards declaring their support for the group known as Palestine Action. Police updated their earlier totals and said 522 people were arrested for supporting a proscribed organization in violation of anti-terror laws. Another 10 people were arrested on a variety of charges, including assaulting and obstructing police officers.
Police said that was the highest number of arrests made on a single day in the last 10 years, CBS News partner BBC News reported.
Backers of Palestine Action staged the protest to underscore their belief that the government is illegally restricting freedom of expression by banning a direct action organization that has challenged its policies.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who oversees law enforcement in Britain, rejected that characterization, saying Palestine Action was banned after committing serious attacks involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.
“The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organization,” Cooper said in a statement. “Many people may not yet know the reality of this organization, but the assessments are very clear, this is not a nonviolent organization,” she added.
The government banned Palestine Action after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two tanker planes to protest British support for the war in Gaza. Palestine Action had previously targeted Israeli defense contractors and other sites in Britain that they believe have links with the Israeli military.
Supporters of Palestine Action are challenging the ban in court, saying the government has gone too far in declaring a direct action group a terrorist organization.
Israel last week announced its intention to occupy Gaza City as part of a plan to end the war and bring the captives home. Family members and many international leaders have condemned the plan, saying it would lead to more bloodshed and endanger the hostages.
United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Türk and U.K. Prime Minister Starmer were among them. Türk, in a statement issued after Israel’s announcement, said the government’s “plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza strip must be immediately halted.” He added that “further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.”
Meanwhile, Starmer called Israel’s plan “wrong” and said it would “do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages.”
Stop the Hate, a coalition of groups organizing the march through London on Sunday, said in a statement that they “are united in one clear and urgent demand: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
“Regardless of our diverse political views, this is not a political issue — it is a human one,” the coalition said.
contributed to this report.