Hundreds arrested during a Jewish protest in New York for a ceasefire in Gaza

An impressive sit-in was held at New York’s famous Grand Central Station, blocking the main concourse. The demonstrators called for peace in the Middle East.

Police and organizers said that several hundred people were arrested on Friday in New York, United States, during a demonstration organized by a Jewish movement against the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

The New York Police Department announced the arrest of at least 200 people, and organizers said that more than 300 people were arrested during the dispersal of the march inside Grand Central Station in New York.

Pictures taken at the scene of the incident showed long lines of young men, handcuffed and wearing black T-shirts with the phrases “Not in our name” and “Stop shooting now” written in white.

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The massive sit-in was organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace – New York City, which said several thousand participants blocked the station’s main concourse. He said this was “the largest act of civil disobedience New York City has seen in twenty years.”

Pictures showed the station crowded with demonstrators carrying signs reading “Palestinians must be free” and “Mourning the dead, fighting like hell for the living.”

“The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are closely intertwined.”

The rabbis began the event by lighting Shabbat candles and reciting Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

“Shabbat is usually a day of rest, but we cannot afford to rest while genocide takes place in our name,” Rabbi May Yi said in a statement issued by organizers.

She added: “The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are intertwined, and security can only come through justice, equality and freedom for all.”

The Ministry of Health of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic movement that holds power in the Gaza Strip, confirmed that 7,326 people, most of them civilians, including more than 3,000 children, were killed in the Palestinian territories due to Israeli retaliatory bombing since October 7.

More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians, on October 7 by Hamas, the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, according to authorities.