Protesters holding placards and flags gather on Whitehall in central London during a national protest for Palestine on January 18, 2025, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. After the Metropolitan Police blocked a march from the BBC premises in London due to the route passing near a synagogue, with demonstrators backing “an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide of Israel in Gaza” were invited to gather in Whitehall to protest. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP)
AFP
On the eve of the entry into force of the truce concluded between Israel and Hamas, they hope that the latter will bring more than a “temporary respite”.
“We want to be optimistic” about this ceasefire, and “we must be in the streets to ensure that the ceasefire holds,” Sophie Mason, a 50-year-old Londoner who is accustomed to Pro-Palestinian protests in the British capital.
The truce, which is due to begin Sunday morning, provides for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas in Gaza as well as an increase in humanitarian aid.
The planned march turned into a static rally on Whitehall, the main avenue in the ministerial district, after the police rejected the route proposed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign movement, which passed too close to a synagogue.
Participants held signs reading “Stop arming Israel” or “Gaza, stop the massacre.” Some sang, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be liberated.”
“We must put pressure so that this ceasefire is respected” and that international aid arrives in Gaza, says Ben, a 36-year-old trade unionist, who refused to give his last name.
-For Anisah Qausher, a student, the ceasefire “comes late and it is insufficient. If she hopes that it will “bring a temporary respite”, she believes that it will be necessary “to do much more”, referring to the challenge of rebuilding Gaza.
The police, present en masse, announced on X that they had made at least seven arrests.
A counter-demonstration bringing together around a hundred people brandishing Israeli flags took place not far from the rally.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 94 are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the army.
At least 46,899 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry deemed reliable by the UN.
According to the UN, the war has caused a level of destruction “unprecedented in recent history” in the besieged Palestinian territory.
