Hezbollah flags waved, Israeli flags burnt at London Embassy protest

Hezbollah flags were waved and Israeli flags were burned outside Israel’s London embassy this weekend as scores of demonstrators vented their anger at new security measures at Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The Kensington protest on Saturday was organised by a group called Palestinian Forum in Britain to counter “Israeli aggression in Jerusalem” after Israel introduced metal detectors following the killing of two policemen on 14 July.

Videos of the London protest, posted online by both Palestinian and Israeli supporters, show a group of young men seizing an Israeli flag, running away down the street with it, and later setting fire to it with a blowtorch.

Press Attaché Yiftah Curiel tweeted that the protesters were “sick” and “thugs” for “cheering on the bloodshed”.

Saturday’s event was one of a series of flare-ups around the world, with protests in Turkey, Jordon, Malaysia and Lebanon, as Muslim communities reacted to Israel’s new measures at one of Islam’s holiest sites.

In the Irish city of Derry, residents held a silent protest for Palestinians in Gaza, in which they lit a candle and shared a message of solidarity for Gaza’s population, who last month had their electricity supplies cut further.