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Police detain dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators for disrupting Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
(New York Jewish Week) – Police detained 34 anti-Israel protesters during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan on Thursday.
The activists disrupted the procession in Midtown and were forcibly removed by police.
Video showed the demonstrators lying in the street, dousing themselves with fake blood, and chanting “Liberation, for Palestine and planet.” They wore white jumpsuits emblazoned with words including “consumerism,” “colonialism,” “ethnic cleansing” and “capitalism.”
In footage from the event, bystanders are heard booing the activists as the protest holds up the iconic parade.
Police said 34 individuals had been taken into custody. Four were arrested for charges including trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Thirty individuals received criminal court summonses for trespassing.
Radical pro-Palestinian groups also held protests in Manhattan around the time of the parade. The groups advertised the demonstrations as “Flood ‘Thankstaking’ for Gaza and indigenous resistance,” echoing Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7 terror rampage through southern Israel, which it called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
The demonstrations were led by Within Our Lifetime and Decolonize This Place, two hardline pro-Palestinian groups that endorsed the Hamas attack after it killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Footage shared by the activists showed protesters marching through Manhattan waving Palestinian flags and holding signs that said “Zionism is terrorism,” “By any means necessary,” and “Resistance until return,” then gathering at the New York Public Library’s main branch on Fifth Avenue in Midtown. Video showed the facade of the library defaced with red handprints and Palestinian flags.
The group said it was disrupting Thanksgiving to protest the “settler colonies the United States and Israel,” and had targeted the Stephen Schwarzman building of the library because the “zionist billionaire” for which it is named has business ties in Israel, and because, last month, following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the Blackstone Group, of which Schwarzman is the CEO, pledged $7 million in humanitarian aid for Israel.
The organizers earlier this week encouraged their followers to show up along the parade route with Palestinian flags and signs.
The groups have held near-daily protests in New York City in recent weeks that call for the elimination of the Jewish state and the targeting of “Zionists” in the U.S. There are additional protests scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
Within Our Lifetime set off an uproar last week by posting maps online showing the location of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in New York and encouraging its followers to target the institutions.
The demonstrations are taking place as Israel navigates a delicate process to release some of the hostages held by terrorists in Gaza. The attackers took over 200 Israelis and foreign nationals hostage on Oct. 7, including many children.
On Friday, 13 Israelis and 11 other nationals were released from captivity in exchange for a pause in fighting and Israel’s release of thirty-nine Palestinians, many of whom were imprisoned on terror charges.
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The post Police detain dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators for disrupting Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 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.