40,000 people march through central London at rally for the hostages

Tens of thousands of people — the Metropolitan Police estimate was up to 40,000 — took part in a central London rally on Sunday afternoon, calling for freedom for the 125 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

In blazing sunshine, those on the demonstration, which included representatives from Jewish communities around the UK, were joined at Lincoln’s Inn Fields by Iranian supporters and numerous church groups.

The event — a march to Richmond Terrace in Whitehall, opposite Downing Street —was organised by the UK branches of the 7/10 Human Chain group and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, and was part of a global initiative, with rallies being held in New York, across the US, Australia, Germany, Spain and France.

By late afternoon the Metropolitan Police, who closed Whitehall for the duration of the rally, and some roads for the parade from Holborn to Downing Street, said that there had been one arrest so far. “An altercation between a passerby and a member of the public resulted in the passerby being arrested for common assault.”

Separately, the police said: “A bottle was thrown towards the group, but the suspect has not yet been identified. Thankfully, nobody was injured”.

Speakers included family members of captives — some, such as Lionel Benjamin, in tears as he spoke about his cousin Ron, out for an innocent bike ride near Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October when he was kidnapped by Hamas. For months, Ron Benjamin’s family campaigned on his behalf, but two weeks ago his body was returned to Israel by the IDF and his funeral was finally held on 20 May. Mr Benjamin put it plainly: “No hostages, no ceasefire” — and received huge applause from the crowd.

Other family members, such as Merav and Amir Daniel, the parents of Oz Daniel, a 19-year-old IDF soldier killed on 7 October, have not yet been able to bury their son as his body is still in Gaza. Osnat and Menachem Getz, aunt and uncle of Omer Neutra, an IDF tank commander kidnapped by Hamas, still hope that he is alive.

But as the news trickles slowly out of the Gaza Strip, the posters at the rallies are changing, too. Many pictures of those taken captive on 7 October were on posters with the word “kidnapped” on the top. New stickers adding the word “murdered” told the grim truth about the fate of the remaining hostages. Other posters showed an hourglass with the slogan “Time is running out”. And every speech was punctuated by the mass shouting of the core message — “Bring Them Home”.

An Iranian human rights activist, Dr Nader Fallah, drew boos from the crowd when he declared “shame on his ignorance”, in reference to Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s son, for social media posts he has made about Iran. But it was unclear whether the crowd was booing Dr Fallah’s criticism of Yair Netanyahu, or booing the opinions voiced by him.

As well as contributions from Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Edgware and Hendon Reform Rabbi Mark Goldsmith, the event was topped and tailed by Lord Polak and Israel’s former ambassador to France, Danny Shek, who, since 7 October, has been the head of diplomacy for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Ambassador Shek, a former director of Bicom (the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre), was clearly moved by the enormous turnout. He had come to London directly from his regular weekly appearance at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

To huge cheers, he told the crowd: “We serve as the voices taken away from the hostages. We will not be silenced. We will speak out until the very last hostage is safely home”.