A number of hundred folks marched on Sunday in London to demand Hamas launch the Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian terror group in Gaza and to criticize Britain’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state.
Joined by a number of relations of the hostages, the march ended on the 10 Downing Road workplace of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has mentioned the UK will acknowledge a Palestinian state if Israel doesn’t comply with a truce in its warfare with Hamas.
Most of the protesters waved Israeli flags or wore yellow ribbons, a logo of solidarity with the hostages, whose liberation the organizers of the march argue ought to be the Labour chief’s precedence.
Terror teams within the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, together with 49 of the 251 kidnapped within the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the warfare in Gaza. They embrace the our bodies of a minimum of 28 confirmed useless by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave considerations for the well-being of two others, Israeli officers have mentioned. Hamas can be holding the physique of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Among the many demonstrators have been Ayelet Stavitsky, sister of useless hostage Nadav Popplewell, and Adam Ma’anit, cousin of Tsahi Idan, who died whereas being held by Hamas.
“I feel that the federal government bought it fallacious with its overseas coverage, that it’s time for it to appropriate and refocus on the hostages,” mentioned Ma’anit, criticizing Starmer’s deliberate recognition of a Palestinian state in September.
Professional-Israel protesters maintain flags and banners throughout a ‘Nationwide march for the Hostages’ organized by Cease the Hate UK, in central London on August 10, 2025.(CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
Three folks, recognized as counter-protesters, have been arrested, two of them for violent acts, police mentioned.
In line with the Day by day Mail, one man was detained for grabbing a pro-Israel protester by the throat.
The Sunday protests got here days after a major march in London in help of the banned Palestine Motion group, throughout which over 500 folks have been arrested for supporting the proscribed group.
Cops remonstrate with a protester throughout a ‘Elevate The Ban’ demonstration in help of the proscribed group Palestine Motion, at Parliament Sq., central London, on August 9, 2025. (HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
Starmer’s transfer in direction of recognizing a Palestinian state follows on from comparable pledges made by different Western nations comparable to France and Canada, as worldwide disquiet over the dire humanitarian within the Palestinian territory grows.
Becoming a member of them, Australia announced Monday that it’s going to acknowledge a Palestinian state subsequent month, and New Zealand mentioned it might quickly observe go well with.
Whereas the groundswell of pledges to acknowledge a Palestinian state is rising forward of subsequent month’s UN assembly, there stay influential European nations which can be resisting recognition. Germany, considered one of Israel’s closest allies, has mentioned it “doesn’t plan to acknowledge a Palestinian state within the brief time period.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mentioned the transfer could be “counterproductive.”
Israel has condemned these bulletins as a “reward for terror,” and in a press convention Sunday, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned that the “prevailing assumption” that the creation of a Palestinian state would clear up all points is “absurdity.”
“It defies creativeness or understanding how clever folks around the globe, together with seasoned diplomats, authorities leaders, and revered journalists, fall for this absurdity,” he declared.
