A huge pro-Palestinian demonstration is underway in London as hundreds of thousands of people march through the center of the city Saturday, according to a CNN team on the ground.
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police told CNN that an estimated 300,000 people attended the rally.
There was heavy police presence in central London’s Hyde Park Corner as protesters chanted “free, free Palestine” and “ceasefire now.” They were also heard chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
Police arrested 82 counter-protesters in London who attempted to confront those taking part in the rally. The Metropolitan Police said the people were apprehended “to prevent a breach of the peace.”
Police said they had “faced aggression from counter-protesters” who stormed the area “in significant numbers” ahead of what could be the biggest march yet since the Israel-Hamas conflict began about a month ago.
Elsewhere in Europe, thousands of people in Brussels and Paris also attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the US: A group of pro-Palestinian protesters on Saturday gathered near the street where President Joe Biden lives in Delaware to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The crowd began forming at roughly 11 a.m. ET. Many are carrying Palestinian flags, and there are large cellophane balloons spelling out “ceasefire now.”
Biden is currently at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for Veterans Day events. He’s expected to travel to his Wilmington home later on Saturday.
On Friday, about 2,000 people attended a demonstration in New York City, gathering in Columbus Circle before marching to the area around Times Square and eventually to Grand Central, where demonstrations temporarily closed access to the terminal.
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