Protest Held Outside University College London In Solidarity With Gaza

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) — A group of people staged a demonstration Saturday outside University College London (UCL) in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7 last year.

The crowd gathered outside UCL's main building in Bloomsbury, just a few days after roughly a dozen tents were pitched in support of people in Gaza, joining several other campuses across the Western world.

Carrying Palestinian flags, the group chanted slogans, including "terrorist Israel," referring to the relentless Israeli attacks that have left vast swathes of Gaza in ruins and pushed 85% of the enclave's population into internal displacement, even as they have faced a crippling blockade on food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Protesters called for divestment from firms complicit in the "ongoing genocide" in Gaza, and an end to arms shipments to Israel.

Separately, a smaller group held a counter-protest nearby, with police deployed in the area.

At least three protesters have been arrested by police during the protest.

The global wave of pro-Palestinian student demonstrations began on April 17 at Columbia University to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza, spreading to other Western countries, including the UK.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas incursion which killed some 1,200 people.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed more than 34,600 Palestinians and wounded nearly 78,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian territory.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to prevent genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. -