More than 70 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after clashes with police in London

18 January 2025 8:30pm GMT More than 70 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested in Trafalgar Square on suspicion of breaching protest conditions after demonstrators broke through a police line as they marched from a rally in Whitehall. The Metropolitan Police warned the group to disperse or face arrest, later announcing 77 people had been arrested – the highest number across more than 20 national Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) protests since October 2023. Some 65 had been detained for a breach of conditions, five for public order offences, two for obstructing police, one for supporting a proscribed organisation, one for inciting racial hatred, one for common assault, one for assault on an emergency worker and one for sexual assault. Commander Adam Slonecki, who led the policing operation, said: “We have policed more than 20 national protests organised by the PSC since October 2023. “This is the highest number of arrests we have seen, in response to the most significant escalation in criminality.”