By NNN-KUNA,
London : Angry protesters took to the streets across the UK Saturday to demonstrate against the bombing of Gaza; burning the Israeli flag and throwing fireworks as the military action against Hamas was stepped up.
Police said at least 10,000 people packed London’s Trafalgar Square — organizers claimed at least six times that number — in the largest of a series of rallies at home and abroad demanding an end to the military action.
Hundreds of shoes were thrown at the gates of Downing Street during the march there, led by singer Annie Lennox, with demonstrators chanting “Shame on you, have my shoe”.
The main protest in the British capital passed off peacefully, but there was a more heated atmosphere later when several thousand protesters descended on the Israeli embassy in Kensington.
Police wearing body armor and armed with truncheons and gas canisters apprehended several individuals as they attempted to hurdle barriers set up to keep them away from the building and threw fireworks.
Number 10 said the Prime Minister had spoken to his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert again to call for a halt to the action to stem the death toll and allow humanitarian supplies in.
More than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 2,300 have been wounded since Israel began its aerial campaign a week ago, Gaza health officials said.
The UN said the death toll in Gaza included more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children.
The offensive was launched after more than a week of Palestinian rocket fire that followed a six-month truce.
Chanting “free, free Palestine” and “Israel terrorists”, many London protesters carried Palestinian flags and banners or painted their faces in the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Part of a worldwide day of protest, hundreds more marched in Scottish and Irish cities, as well as Bristol and Portsmouth, England, where organizers were stunned to attract 10 times the 50 or so expected to turn out.
Downing Street said Brown had spoken to Olmert in a bid to secure a ceasefire.
“The Prime Minister has spoken again today to Prime Minister Olmert, and is pressing hard for an immediate ceasefire,” a Number 10 spokesman said.
“Rocket attacks from Hamas must stop, and we have called for a halt to Israeli military action in Gaza. Too many have died and we need space to get humanitarian supplies to those who need them.” Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the Israeli action would be self-defeating and hit out at US President George Bush who pinned the blame on the “act of terror” by Hamas.
“Of course Israel has every right to defend itself…but I think the strategy they are now pursuing is self-defeating: you can’t bomb a terrorist organization into submission,” he told BBC Radio.
The moderate Palestinians who were the key to peace would be alienated, he said, accusing Bush of giving an “unquestioning” green light to the offensive and Britain of not taking enough firm action.