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Members of Congress evacuated as police crack down on Jewish anti-Israel protesters outside Democratic HQ

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Capitol Police arrested activists from two left-wing Jewish groups protesting outside the Democratic Party headquarters and calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
At least two Democrats in Congress said police evacuated them from the building during the protest, the latest in a string of high-profile actions by the groups, IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
The police said Wednesday night that the protesters with the two Jewish groups and a third organization, Democratic Socialists of America, were violent. The protest groups said their activists were peaceful and that it was the police who were violent.
The groups, who work together as the Ceasefire Now Coalition, said on Thursday morning that they counted 90 injuries among their members.
“Protesters were choked and violently handled by multiple offices at once, thrown against a wall, then grabbed and picked up and thrown down the front stairs,” the groups said in a statement. “At least two protesters’ glasses were smashed by the police. Dozens of people were kicked, kneed and punched in the face by police officers. People were shoved down the stairs and tackled to the pavement by cops running at full speed.”
The incident took place Wednesday night as about 150 protesters gathered outside the Democratic Party headquarters.
“Right now our officers are working to keep back approximately 150 people who are illegally and violently protesting in the area of Canal Street and Ivy Street, SE,” the Capitol Police tweeted at the time. “Officers are making arrests. All [Congress] Members have been evacuated from the area. Please stay away from the area.”
The protests come a day after tens of thousands of Jews from around the country rallied on the National Mall in support of Israel in its war against Hamas and the return of the hostages taken by Hamas, as well to counter rising antisemitism in the country. Hamas launched the war on Oct. 7 with deadly raids of Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
Israel launched counterstrikes and since then, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry. It is not known what portion of that number are combatants, and how many have been killed by rockets misfired by terrorist groups.
The Associated Press reported that congressional staffers were told not to enter or exit the nearby congressional office buildings during the scuffle. Police for a time closed off streets near the buildings. “The large group of illegal protesters near Canal Street and Ivy Street, SE, have cleared out, but USCP officers will stay on scene out of an abundance of caution,” a tweet said at 10:15 p.m.
The groups said their actions were peaceful. “Police are being extremely violent outside @TheDemocrats headquarters,” IfNotNow said on X. “We are linking arms, threatening no one, and begging our politicians to support an end to the killing and the suffering in Gaza. Begging, peacefully, for a ceasefire.”
In a statement later, IfNotNow said police injured over 90 protesters, “including being pepper sprayed, minor cuts, and dragged by the hair.”
Jewish Voice for Peace said reports that the protesters were violent were “misinformation.” “We showed up with @IfNotNowOrg & @DemSocialists to lay out 11,000 candles representing Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes & siege and to call for a #CeasefireNOW,” it said on X. “The police assaulted peaceful anti-war protestors.”
Video posted by the two groups showed police shoving and arresting protesters. Protesters wore black sweatshirts emblazoned with “Ceasefire Now” in large white letters and chanted “Ceasefire now!” and “Let Gaza live!”.
A reporter on the scene, Semafor’s Dave Weigel, said the protesters were not trying to enter the building but were blocking its entrances. Weigel posted video that showed police pulling the protesters, who were linking arms, away from an entrance.
Rep. Sean Casten, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he was evacuated and described the threat posed by the protesters as of blocking safe passage in and out of the building.
“I was just evacuated from the @dccc office after the building was surrounded by protestors who had blocked all modes of ingress and egress,” Casten said on X. “Grateful to Capitol Police for getting all members and staff out safely. To the protestors: PLEASE don’t do something irresponsible.”
He added in a second tweet, continuing to address the protesters, “You have the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and protest. But blocking all entries to a building with multiple members of Congress in it, protected by Capitol Police officers who have lived through January 6 is putting you and other innocent people at risk.”
Thousands of insurrectionists, heeding then-President Donald Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 election, stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Five people died as a result and hundreds of people were subsequently arrested.
Rep. Brad Sherman, a Jewish Democrat from California, who also was evacuated, said the protesters were violent and used pepper spray and accused them of trying to breach the entrances.
“Was just evacuated from the #DNC after pro-terrorist, anti-#Israel protestors grew violent, pepper spraying police officers and attempting to break into the building,” he said on X.
IfNotNow said it was police who deployed pepper spray. “They met us with pepper spray, with full riot gear, with tear gas, with violence,” it said in a tweet.
A growing minority among Democrats favors a ceasefire in the war. Biden and the leadership in Congress of both parties oppose a ceasefire, backing Israel’s goal of continuing to fight until 240 hostages the terrorist group Hamas abducted during its Oct. 7 massacres are returned, and the group itself is dismantled.
IfNotNow and JVP protesters have held demonstrations at the White House and in the Capitol, as well as in statehouses and public spaces across the country. Those protests led to arrests in many cases but did not result in violence.
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The post Members of Congress evacuated as police crack down on Jewish anti-Israel protesters outside Democratic HQ 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.