The protest comes after Hamas handed over three male Israeli captives as part of the ceasefire agreement
Published On 15 Feb 2025
Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators have marched through central London to protest Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip.
Waving Palestinian flags and brandishing placards saying “hands off Gaza”, several thousand people walked from Whitehall, in Westminster, to the US embassy in Nine Elms, in southwest London on Saturday.
Protesters also held banners that read “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd”.
Earlier this month, Trump’s suggestion that the US could redevelop the embattled enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” attracted global condemnation.
His proposal aims to resettle Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them to return.
“I think it’s completely immoral, illegal, impractical and absurd,” 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos told the AFP news agency.
“You simply cannot deport two million people, especially that the surrounding countries already said that they wouldn’t take them, not out of the goodness of their heart but because it would destabilise those countries. So, it’s not going to happen but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame.
The march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was the 24th major pro-Palestinian protest in London since October 7, 2023.
A heavy police presence was deployed as officers kept protesters away from a counter-march called “Stop the Hate”, where participants waved Is