Anti-Israel Protesters Descend on Downing Street After Media Blamed Israel for Explosion at Gaza Hospital

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 18: Pro-Palestinian supporters pray as they attend a vigil for t
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters descended upon Downing Street in London outside the Prime Minister’s official residence on Wednesday evening to hold a “vigil” for those killed in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza, which the legacy media initially blamed on Israel based on apparently false assertions from the Hamas terror group.

An “emergency protest” was organised on Whitehall by the Stop the War Coalition to protest against Israel and to hold vigil for the people who died at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday evening.

While Israel has published audio and other evidence purporting to show that the hospital blast came as a result of a misfired rocket from terrorists within Gaza, there has been no evidence to back up the claim from Hamas that Israel was to blame, an assertion that was uncritically reported by establishment media outlets such as the BBC.

Footage from outside Downing Street published by veteran protest watcher Andy Ngo showed hundreds of protesters gathered in the rain chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a genocidal call to arms referencing the complete destruction of the state of Israel. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has branded the phrase as antisemitic and encouraged police to take tougher action against anti-Israel protests.

The protest comes after a militant activist group, Palestine Action published footage of themselves attacking a supposed “Israeli military drone factory” in Leicester after ramming through a gate.

The group said that their “actionists” intended to block the entrance to the building in order to stop the “export of weaponry to be used in the massacre of Gaza.” The activists squared off with police as they “occupied” the roof of a police van.

Police said that several vehicles, including the police van, had been damaged during the protest. Three of the activists, aged 22, 27, and 60 years old were arrested, the Leicester Mercury reported.

The reporting by the legacy media on the blast at the Gaza hospital has come under heavy scrutiy, with even Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scolding the media and warning them to not take the word of Hamas terrorists as gospel.

“We don’t treat what comes out of the Kremlin as the gospel truth, we should not do the same with Hamas,” Sunak said during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

“We should not rush to judgment before we have all the facts on the appalling situation that we saw yesterday, particularly given the sensitivities that he raises, the impact on communities here, but also across the region.

“As I said, it is incumbent on all of those in positions of responsibility in this House and outside in the media to recognise that the words we say will have an impact and we should be careful with them.”

The publicly-funded BBC, which continues to refer to members of Hamas as terrorists, has come under particular scrutiny over its apparent rush to blame Israel for the deaths at the hospital on the basis of claims from Hamas.

Author and academic, Matt Goodwin said: “It appears the BBC has just given the world a masterclass in how to spread terrorist misinformation.”

Former Cabinet Minister Stephen Crabb said: “Last night, sections of the British media were reporting as fact that it was Israeli rockets that had landed and attacked the Al Ahli hospital, relying on information supplied by officials in terrorist-controlled Gaza.

“The headlines have since been rewritten but the outpouring of Jew-hate on social media overnight was vile.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter: or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com

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