It comes as protest organisers carry out a national day of action, not limited to a large march in central London.

The demonstrations have proved to be contentious, with former Home Secretary branding them “hate marches”.

The protesters have been calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, with Israel continuing to bombard the Gaza Strip in response to attacks on October 7.

Speaking on GB News, Julie Cook lamented the involvement of children in the protests, saying they are unaware of what they are marching for in many instances.

“A lot of these children are holding up placards”, she said.

“They don’t even know what is being written on them. The Stop the War coalition that is behind a lot of this are sending out messages on how children can get off school without getting in trouble.

“I don’t see what difference it will make for these children to do this other than hampering their own school career and their learning.”

GB News host Darren Grimes waded in by saying children “bunking off” school has “struck” him.

“We’ve had years of lockdowns and now of course people are bunking off school in the name of a foreign nation state in the Middle East”, he said.

Cook continued: “If you do take your child off school, you want to go on holiday, you are fined for that.

Pro-Palestine protesters have been carrying out demonstrations across LondonReuters

“You can’t go on holiday in school time. You can only take your children off for reasonable measures, like hospital appointments or funerals.

“So there is a lot of anger among parents who aren’t getting involved in these protests saying ‘why are we fined if we go anywhere and these children are allowed to?’”

The direct action calling for a ceasefire will take the form of more than 100 smaller rallies across the UK.

London will host 10 events, including rallies in Islington, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets.

On previous weekends thousands of protesters and counter-protesters have converged on the capital.

A spokeswoman for organisers Stop The War Coalition said that Saturday’s smaller rallies come ahead of a national demonstration planned for the following Saturday.

“Groups around the country are organising local rallies and marches to basically build for the national demonstration that has been called for next Saturday,” she said.

The spokeswoman added that most of the rallies will have speakers, and some groups will still march.