Category World News

Police in London on Saturday arrested 522 people who were protesting against the United Kingdom’s recent decision to ban the group Palestine Action, a tally thought to include the highest-ever recorded at a single protest in the British capital.

The Metropolitan Police on Sunday updated its previous arrest tally of 466 and said that all but one of the 522 arrests took place at a protest in central London’s Parliament Square and were for displaying placards backing Palestine Action.

The other arrest for the same offence took place at nearby Russell Square as thousands rallied at a Palestine Coalition march demonstrating against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed at least 61,430 people and wounded 153, 213.

The Met made 10 further arrests on Saturday, including six for assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added on Sunday.

The protests were the latest in a series of rallies denouncing the British government’s ban of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 on July 5, days after the group took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.4m) of damage to two aircraft.

The group said its activists were responding to the UK’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Huda Ammori, cofounder of Palestine Action, said ahead of Saturday’s protests that they would “go down in our country’s history as a momentous act of collective defiance of an unprecedented attack on our fundamental freedoms”.

The force said the average age of those arrested on Saturday was 54, with six teenagers, 97 aged in their 70s, and 15 octogenarians.

A roughly equal number of men and women were detained.

In a statement following the latest mass arrests, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the government’s decision, insisting: “UK national security and public safety must always be our top priority”.

“The assessments are very clear – this is not a non-violent organisation,” she added.

But critics, including the United Nations and groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have condemned the government’s proscription as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.

“If this was happening in another country, the UK government would be voicing grave concerns about freedom of speech and human rights,” Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Areeba Hamid said on Saturday.

She added the government had “now sunk low enough to turn the Met into thought police, direct action into terrorism”.

Police across the UK have made scores of similar arrests since July 5, when being a member of Palestine Action or supporting the group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with such backing following their arrests at a July 5 demonstration.

In its update on Sunday, the Met revealed a further 26 case files following other arrests on that day are due to be submitted to prosecutors “imminently” and that more would follow related to later protests.

It believes that 30 of those held on Saturday had been arrested at previous recent Palestine Action protests.

Eighteen people remained in custody by Sunday lunchtime, but were set to be released on bail within hours, the Met added.

It noted officers from its counterterrorism command will now “work to put together the case files required to secure charges against those arrested as part of this operation”.

Protesters call for release of Israeli captives

Meanwhile, demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza marched in central London on Sunday.

The protesters, who planned to march to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s residence in Downing Street for a rally, include Noga Guttman, a cousin of 24-year-old captive Evyatar David, who featured in a video that enraged Israelis when it was released by Hamas last week. The video showed an emaciated David saying he was digging his own grave inside a tunnel in Gaza.

In the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, which triggered Israel’s war on Gaza, more than 200 people were taken captive. Some 50 of the captives still have not been released. Twenty are thought to be alive.

Israel last week announced its intention to seize Gaza City as part of a plan to end the war and bring the captives home. Family members and many international leaders have condemned the plan, saying it would lead to more bloodshed and endanger the captives.

“We are united in one clear and urgent demand: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” Stop the Hate, a coalition of groups organising the march, said in a statement.

Lebanon’s government has announced a timeline for Hezbollah’s disarmament, saying the military would set out a plan to bring all weapons under state authority before the end of 2025.

This comes after months of pressure from the United States after Israel’s war on Lebanon killed more than 4,000 people and culminated in a ceasefire in November. Israel has continuously violated the ceasefire and still occupies five points in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s arms have long been a contentious issue in Lebanon, and attempts to interfere in Hezbollah’s infrastructure or military capabilities have led to internal conflict.

However, Hezbollah took heavy losses in Israeli attacks last year, which diminished its status as Lebanon’s political and military hegemon.

As the issue of disarming Hezbollah heats up, here’s what you need to know about the government’s announcement on Tuesday and the situation in Lebanon:

What did Hezbollah say?

It doesn’t like the disarmament plan.

In fact, Hezbollah said it would treat the decision as though it didn’t exist.

“The government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam committed a grave sin by taking a decision to strip Lebanon of its weapons to resist the Israeli enemy. … This decision fully serves Israel’s interest,” the group said in a statement.

Despite its flat-out rejection of the government’s decision, Hezbollah has yet to respond with force.

Under its late leader Hassan Nasrallah, the group threatened that any act taken against its arms could lead to civil war.

This time, Hezbollah has not taken military action, possibly a result of a change in its strategy or because of its weakened capacity after the war.

Rumours circulated during a cabinet session on Tuesday that Hezbollah supporters in black shirts were gathering along the highway in Khaldeh, just south of Beirut, but that turned out to be a restaurant celebrating reaching one million followers on Instagram.

Pro-Hezbollah protesters did briefly block the airport road in Beirut after the government’s decision, but little else has manifested despite heightened domestic concerns.

What about Iran, Hezbollah’s backer?

Iran voiced support for Hezbollah but said it has no role in shaping the group’s decisions or policy.

The comments came from Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said the efforts to disarm Hezbollah wouldn’t work.

‏“This is not the first time they’ve tried to strip Hezbollah of its weapons,” Araghchi said. “The reason is clear: The power of resistance has proven itself in the field.”

Iran played a formative role in founding Hezbollah in 1982 during the heat of the Lebanese Civil War and has been the group’s main benefactor ever since.

But since Israel’s war on Lebanon, Iran’s ability to support Hezbollah has taken a major hit. The Lebanese government has blocked flights from Tehran, and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in neighbouring Syria has blocked the land route used to transport funding and weapons.

How did Lebanon respond?

Iran’s comments angered some Lebanese officials.

Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said Araghchi’s statement is “firmly rejected and condemned”.

“Such statements undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty, unity and stability and constitute an unacceptable interference in its internal matters and sovereign decisions,” Raggi said.

Is disarmament going to happen?

This remains to be seen.

Salam said after a follow-up cabinet meeting on Thursday that his ministers approved the “objectives” of a US proposal for “ensuring that the possession of weapons is restricted solely to the state”.

“The government is now expected to formally commit to disarming Hezbollah, a decision that could … ignite a political crisis,” Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Zeina Khodr said.

Hezbollah has yet to respond forcefully, and anti-Hezbollah politicians have used increasingly bold rhetoric.

“If there is a cost to be able to centralise the weapons with the … Lebanese armed forces, [it may be] better like that,” Elias Hankash, a Lebanese MP with the anti-Hezbollah Kataeb party, said.

President Joseph Aoun and Salam will have to navigate US pressure and domestic support for disarming Hezbollah with opposition from the group and its supporters, who are reeling from Israel’s war.

The World Bank has said Lebanon needs $11bn for reconstruction and recovery, the vast majority of which is needed in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s suburbs, where most of Hezbollah’s support is based.

Have any Hezbollah members expressed discontent with disarmament?

Plenty of discontent has been expressed.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the idea, saying the group’s disarmament would make Lebanon vulnerable to attack and would serve only Israel.

Ali Mokdad, a Hezbollah MP, also dismissed the decision, calling it “ink on paper”. Another Hezbollah MP, Mohammad Raad, said the decision could never be implemented and compared Hezbollah giving up its weapons to “suicide”.

What are things like right now?

Tensions were heightened on Saturday when six Lebanese soldiers were killed while inspecting an alleged Hezbollah weapons site.

Hezbollah reportedly booby-trapped sites in southern Lebanon during the war in case invading Israeli soldiers came upon them.

Has Israel created a predicament it can’t escape with its zero-sum path for the Palestinians and regional overreach?

Ukraine’s military has said it struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region in an overnight drone attack, causing explosions and destruction, according to an army statement, as daily aerial exchanges intensify with diplomatic momentum to end the war in play.

Saratov’s governor said on Sunday that one person was killed and several residential apartments and an industrial facility were damaged, but did not mention the oil refinery being struck.

“[Ukrainian] drones are targeting … deeper into Russian territory [than] in the past, where previous attacks have been focused on the line of contact in the south and the western parts of Russia,” said Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Moscow. It is still unclear whether Ukraine’s claims that it hit a refinery are true, he added.

Ukraine’s military also said on Sunday that it had taken back a village in the Sumy region from the Russian army, which has made significant recent gains there.

Ukrainian troops have “liberated and completely cleared” Russian forces from Bezsalivka, the military general staff said in a Telegram post. It said 18 Russian troops had been “eliminated” in the fighting.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is now into its fourth year, as European leaders have welcomed plans by United States President Donald Trump to hold direct talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on ending the conflict.

In Ukraine, three swimmers were killed by unexploded objects in the country’s southern Odesa region at two beaches where swimming has been banned, regional officials said on Sunday. The Black Sea region has long been a popular summer destination, but authorities have urged caution since Russia’s full-scale invasion left mines scattered near its coast.

“All of them were blown up by explosive objects while swimming in prohibited recreational zones,” Regional governor Oleh Kiper said in a statement.

On Saturday, Russia launched a drone attack on a bus in Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing at least two people and wounding 16 others, according to Ukrainian officials.

Another drone hit the bus as the police were responding to the attack, injuring three officers, the police added.

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region also killed two people travelling in a car in the Bilenkivska community on Saturday, as well as a 61-year-old woman who was in her home in the Vasylivka district, a local official reported.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 16 of the 47 Russian drones launched overnight, while 31 drones hit targets across 15 different locations.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 97 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight and 21 more on Saturday morning.

Europe stresses support for Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin talks

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected any suggestion of land concessions to Russia as international efforts to end the war continue.

Trump, who had promised to end the war within 24 hours of reentering the White House in January, plans to meet Putin in Alaska on Friday, saying the parties were close to a deal that could resolve the conflict.

Trump is reportedly open to inviting Zelenskyy to Alaska, but there has been no confirmation as of yet. Putin has insisted the conditions must be right for him and the Ukrainian leader to meet in person.

The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Finland, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on Sunday issued a joint statement welcoming Trump’s efforts, while stressing the need to maintain support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia.

“The emphasis [of the European statement was] … that this is a war that is in Ukraine, but is in Europe too, and has huge potential ramifications for European security,” said Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that European officials who met US Vice President JD Vance in the UK on Saturday had presented a counterproposal for peace, which included demands that a ceasefire must take place before any other steps are taken.

Police in London carried out the most arrests in a single day for a decade, detaining close to 500 peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters for ‘terrorism’. Demonstrators condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza and expressed support for the banned activist group Palestine Action. Many say the crackdown violates free speech and targets peaceful dissent.