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Thousands at Washington pro-Palestinian protest, with some chanting ‘Intifada’ and rushing White House fence
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Thousands of people protested against Israel and the U.S. government’s support of it in downtown Washington D.C., with some rushing the White House fence with cries of “Intifada” and “Free Palestine.”
The protest, which began at 2 p.m. on Saturday and lasted into the evening, called for a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, a demand Israel and the Biden administration have rejected. It filled at least four blocks around Freedom Plaza, just west of the White House. The gathering dwarfed a pro-Israel protest held in the same area several days after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and abducting more than 200.
Israel declared war on Hamas following the attack and has since then killed more than 9,000 people, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. What portion of those deaths are civilians is unknown. Israel says it has killed at least a dozen Hamas commanders and takes significant measures to avoid harming civilians.
There were similar protests drawing tens of thousands across major cities internationally, including in London, Paris, Istanbul and Berlin. Pro-Palestinian rallies also took place in Cincinnati, San Francisco and Provo, Utah.
The protesters in Washington were mostly young, including families who brought their children. Many protesters wore the black and white keffiyeh that is a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. One Dupont Circle book store that sells items promoting the Palestinian cause notified clients a day ahead of the protests that it had run out of the scarves.
Slogans printed on cardboard, on banners and shouted in chants ranged from calls for a ceasefire to calls for the end of Israel as a Jewish state. “We don’t want a Jewish state, we want 48!” went one chant, referring to the region’s status prior to Israel’s founding in 1948. Another chant, “From the river to the sea” is considered by many to be an antisemitic slogan calling for the elimination of Israel.
The most popular chants were “Free Palestine!” and “Intifada,” a word meaning “shucking off” that was the name of two violent Palestinian uprisings. The second intifada, from 2000 to 2005, killed an estimated 1,000 Israelis in a series of terror attacks, including on buses, at cafes and at recreational centers.
As evening set in, some protesters crushed up against the fence surrounding the White House complex, with some scaling the fence to wave a Palestinian flag, and others daubing the fence with red paint. There was one reported arrest for defacing a nearby McDonald’s with the word, “Gaza.”
Israel has refused a ceasefire until the hostages are returned and Hamas is deposed, aims shared by President Joe Biden, although there are differences between the U.S. and Israeli governments about how and how much Israel should facilitate the entry of humanitarian relief into Gaza. Biden is pressing Congress to approve $14 billion in emergency assistance for Israel.
Speakers at the rally blamed Biden for what they said was an emerging genocide.
“Today, we are here because the White House, the headquarters of war and imperialism, is forced to look at its own crimes directly,” one speaker said. “Every single Palestinian death, every shattered child, every home destroyed, every heart broken is blood on Biden’s hands. The Zionist colonists who are carrying out these unspeakable killings are fully equipped and paid by the White House that we can see from here.”
The rapper Macklemore also spoke at the rally. “I know enough that this is a genocide,” he said to cheers. He said he he had been urged to remain silent. “We have been taught to just be complicit to protect our careers to protect our interests. And I’m not going to do it anymore, and I’m not afraid.”
Some protesters brought small body bags marked with the names of children killed by Israeli counterstrikes. There was a smattering of Jewish pro-Palestinian protesters at the rally, bearing placards with slogans like “My grief is not your weapon.” Two Jewish groups that have placed the blame for the conflict primarily on Israel and that accuse it of genocide — the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, held a rally last month at the U.S. Capitol calling for a ceasefire.
Washington Jewish organizations advised constituents before the march not to counterprotest.
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The post Thousands at Washington pro-Palestinian protest, with some chanting ‘Intifada’ and rushing White House fence appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.