Several hundred people marched on Sunday in London to demand Hamas release the Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian terror group in Gaza and to criticize Britain’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state.

Joined by several relatives of the hostages, the march ended at the 10 Downing Street office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has said the UK will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a truce in its war with Hamas.

Many of the protesters waved Israeli flags or wore yellow ribbons, a symbol of solidarity with the hostages, whose liberation the organizers of the march argue should be the Labour leader’s priority.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

Among the demonstrators were Ayelet Stavitsky, sister of dead hostage Nadav Popplewell, and Adam Ma’anit, cousin of Tsahi Idan, who died while being held by Hamas.

“I think that the government got it wrong with its foreign policy, that it’s time for it to correct and refocus on the hostages,” said Ma’anit, criticizing Starmer’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state in September.

Three people, identified as counter-protesters, were arrested, two of them for violent acts, police said.

According to the Daily Mail, one man was detained for grabbing a pro-Israel protester by the throat.

The Sunday  protests came days after a major march in London in support of the banned Palestine Action group, during which over 500 people were arrested for supporting the proscribed organization.

Starmer’s move towards recognizing a Palestinian state follows on from similar pledges made by other Western countries such as France and Canada, as international disquiet over the dire humanitarian in the Palestinian territory grows.

Joining them, Australia announced Monday that it will recognize a Palestinian state next month, and New Zealand said it would soon follow suit.

While the groundswell of pledges to recognize a Palestinian state is growing ahead of next month’s UN meeting, there remain influential European countries that are resisting recognition. Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, has said it “does not plan to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the move would be “counterproductive.”

Israel has condemned these announcements as a “reward for terror,” and in a press conference Sunday, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said that the “prevailing assumption” that the creation of a Palestinian state would solve all issues is “absurdity.”

“It defies imagination or understanding how intelligent people around the world, including seasoned diplomats, government leaders, and respected journalists, fall for this absurdity,” he declared.