Thousands join Washington DC pro-Palestine rally – LIVE

A huge crowd descended on the central London area at midday on Saturday, with protesters marching to the juction with Regent Street before blocking the road.

Palestinian flags were held aloft as others let off flares, played bongos and lead chants of “Ceasefire now”, “from the River to the Sea” and “Israel is a terror state”.

The event was organised by The Free Palestine Coalition which includes Black Lives Matter UK, Sisters Uncut and Black Jewish Alliance, who said there would be “no business as usual while Britain is supporting a genocide that has killed 9,000 people”. Organisers encouraged bystanders to join: “Don’t just stand there, sit down with us!”

The Metropolitan Police said officers are responding to the incident. It said: “This behaviour clearly impacts on London’s ability to function normally and we are working quickly to reopen the road.” Dozens of officers cordoned off the group and countless buses were stopped in their tracks with no room to turn around due to the sit-in.

An Israeli security officer could be seen drawing a pistol, his hand shaking violently. Hours earlier that day, Oct. 7, these desolate fields in southern Israel had teemed with thousands of young people dancing to electronic music under the night sky and camping out in tents or mobile homes. Now, it was silent.

The officer peered quickly into one of the trailers. “Who’s inside?” he called out in Hebrew, his voice pained. It was empty. He moved onto the rest of the festival grounds, searching for signs of life following the Hamas rampage through the outdoor concert. “It’s the police!” he yelled again and again, his voice rising in panic. “Are there any wounded?”

Silence. The officer moved to the outdoor bar. Hovering over the Coca‐Cola coolers and beer-tap levers, he shouted louder, “Wounded?” His camera tilted down.

There were more than a dozen bodies — some encrusted with dirt, others riddled with bullets. They were strewn around the bar and piled on top of each other, hair matted with dark blood, limbs twisted at an unnatural angle. The short shorts with fringe, cut-off T-shirts and stylish white sneakers were reminders that these mangled bodies had been young, carefree partygoers just before dawn.

The graphic and harrowing scene unfolds in a roughly 100-second clip of police body camera footage released Saturday by a first-responder team in southern Israel. It was a chilling depiction of what rescuers encountered in the wake of Hamas’ unprecedented attack on the sleepy Israeli farm communities.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stepped up his frantic diplomacy on Saturday, trying to build support for planning a post-conflict future for Gaza as he continued his second urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointedly snubbed Blinken’s blunt warning that Israel risks losing any hope of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians unless it eases the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he met in Amman with senior Jordanian and other Arab officials, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

Blinken met first with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose economically and politically ravaged country is home to Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed force hostile to Israel.

The U.S. has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has already stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the conflict.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave his first major speech since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the war, but did not forecast his group’s greater involvement despite professing it was not perturbed by U.S. attempts to deter it.

Expelling Israel’s ambassador to Ireland would undermine efforts to get Irish citizens out of Gaza, the country’s deputy premier has insisted.

Micheal Martin was responding to a call from Ireland’s main opposition party Sinn Fein, which claims Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza has rendered ambassador Dana Erlich’s position in Dublin untenable.

Sinn Fein had previously abstained in several votes at local council level on calls for Ambassador Erlich to be expelled. However, the party shifted position on Thursday, insisting it was no longer tenable for the ambassador to remain in Ireland.

Tanaiste Mr Martin branded Sinn Fein’s call “knee jerk” and “populist”.

“Logic escapes me as to how we are to meaningfully seek to get our Irish citizens out of Gaza if one of the countries that we’re working with, we break off relations with,” he said.

The average Gazan is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the U.N. had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is “Water, water,” the Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday.

Thomas White, who said he traveled “the length and breadth of Gaza in the last few weeks,” described the place as a “scene of death and destruction.” No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their future and their ability to feed their families.

The Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, is supporting about 89 bakeries across Gaza, aiming to get bread to 1.7 million people, White told diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member nations in a video briefing from Gaza.

But, he said, “now people are beyond looking for bread. It’s looking for water.”

U.N. deputy Mideast coordinator Lynn Hastings, who is also the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational.

Hours after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, the country’s new fortified, subterranean blood bank kicked into action. Staffers moved equipment into the underground bunker and started saving lives.

The Marcus National Blood Services Center in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, had been scheduled to open within days, but with more than 1,400 people in Israel killed since the Hamas raids — most killed during the initial attack — the timeline changed.

“It became very clear we needed to move with the war plans because this was exactly the moment, the event it was built for,” said Dr. Eilat Shinar, director of the national blood services division of Magen David Adom — Israel’s medical emergency, disaster, ambulance and blood service.

Nestled some 15 meters (50 feet) underground at its lowest level, the $135-million, 6-story, state-of-the-art facility is protected from rockets, missiles, chemical attacks and earthquakes, ensuring blood processing can continue when it’s needed most.

Shiner said the center provided tens of thousands of units of blood in the days that followed the Hamas attacks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stepped up his frantic diplomacy on Saturday, trying to build support for planning a post-conflict future for Gaza as he continued his second urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointedly snubbed Blinken’s blunt warning that Israel risks losing any hope of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians unless it eases the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he met in Amman with senior Jordanian and other Arab officials, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

Blinken met first with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose economically and politically ravaged country is home to Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed force hostile to Israel.

The U.S. has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has already stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the conflict.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave his first major speech since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the war, but did not forecast his group’s greater involvement despite professing it was not perturbed by U.S. attempts to deter it.

Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon Saturday as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts, including one that was struck with two large rockets.

The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border. He threatened a further escalation as Israel’s war in Gaza with Hamas, Hezbollah’s ally, nears the one-month mark.

Hezbollah is prepared for all options, Nasrallah declared, “and we can resort to them at any time.”

Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border, saying “suitable rockets and weapons” were used. It added that “direct hits were scored and technical equipment was destroyed.”

The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV network reported that Hezbollah fired Saturday two Burkan rockets, which carry heavy warheads, at an Israeli post known in Lebanon as Jal al-Allam. A Lebanese security official confirmed the report of Burkan rockets being used for the first time.

A huge crowd descended on the central London area at midday on Saturday, with protesters marching to the juction with Regent Street before blocking the road.

Palestinian flags were held aloft as others let off flares, played bongos and lead chants of “Ceasefire now”, “from the River to the Sea” and “Israel is a terror state”.

The event was organised by The Free Palestine Coalition which includes Black Lives Matter UK, Sisters Uncut and Black Jewish Alliance, who said there would be “no business as usual while Britain is supporting a genocide that has killed 9,000 people”. Organisers encouraged bystanders to join: “Don’t just stand there, sit down with us!”

The Metropolitan Police said officers are responding to the incident. It said: “This behaviour clearly impacts on London’s ability to function normally and we are working quickly to reopen the road.” Dozens of officers cordoned off the group and countless buses were stopped in their tracks with no room to turn around due to the sit-in.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers Saturday to find ways to ease Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis. His mission is complicated by Israel’s insistence there can be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

In unusually blunt language, the United Nations chief said conditions in Gaza are now “horrific” as fighting continues to escalate. With food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities running out, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“An entire population is traumatized, nowhere is safe,” he said Friday.

He said he had not forgotten the slaughter of civilians at the hands of Hamas militants when they launched their attack on Israel almost a month ago, but said civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected. He also said civilians must not be used as human shields, and called upon Hamas to release all of the roughly 240 hostages it has.

Israeli forces have encircled Gaza City, and it has been urging civilians to head south to avoid getting caught up in the fighting as the ground war intensifies.