Thousands call for immediate Gaza ceasefire during march in London

 (PA Wire)
(PA Wire)

Thousands of people have gathered along Whitehall for a protest in support of Palestine which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Those who marched from Russell Square to Parliament included children, parents, elderly and the disabled.

One speaker on stage estimated at least 150,000 people were there.

Marching outside Downing Street, protesters waved flags and placards and chanted slogans including “free, free Palestine” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”.

Various speakers, including the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, gave speeches from a stage outside Parliament.

Mr Zomlot said: “I am running out of words not only to describe the horror we are witnessing every single day, I am running out of words to help me understand how world leaders, how mainstream media cannot see, cannot report, cannot act.

“I have questions. How do they sleep when they see the pictures of skeletal children shaking with fear?”

He added: “I know I can’t sleep, I know you can’t sleep.

“Why are those pictures not on your front page every day? How do world leaders justify the starving of 2.3 million people? How do they justify support for a state that is forcing 2.3 million people into death?”

Protesters could be heard chanting and clapping in agreement.

He later said: “Friends, I am angry, yes I am angry. I fear for my children. I rage, I rage at the world they will grow up in.

“But I also see hope… I see hope in the unbroken spirit of our people in Gaza.”