US police arrested over 100 anti-Israel protesters who were blocking several New York City bridges and a tunnel on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in the three-month-old war between Israel and the Hamas terror group, according to local media reports.
ABC News quoted officials as saying at least 120 people had been arrested while blocking entrances to the Holland Tunnel connecting New York City with New Jersey across the Hudson River.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators sat in the roadway and chanted slogans while holding up traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges across the East River, as well as at the Holland Tunnel, media reported.
Protesters locked themselves to tires, chairs, and each other, on the Brooklyn Bridge, which links the borough of the same name with the Manhattan financial district.
Dozens of police, some wielding bolt cutters and white plastic cable ties, encircled a group of detained protesters who were lined up on the bridge for processing.
Video footage posted on social media showed protesters chanting: “NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same,” referring to the New York Police Department, Ku Klux Klan and the Israel Defense Forces, and, “From the river to the sea,” a slogan used by supporters of Hamas and others to demand Israel’s destruction.
War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages — mostly civilians.
Protests against Israel quickly broke out worldwide as it responded with an air and ground campaign, vowing to destroy the Palestinian terror group. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting so far, though these figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of the terror group’s own rocket misfires.
Protesters at the Holland Tunnel on Monday also carried banners that said “Lift the siege on Gaza,” “Ceasefire Now” and “End the occupation.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Holland Tunnel, said on its website that the lanes to New Jersey were closed “due to police activity.”
The protests came shortly after the morning rush hour and caused backed-up traffic across the city.
Police said the protests lasted just over an hour and had been cleared after 11 a.m., but did not confirm the number of arrests.
“It’s important because we need a ceasefire. It’s important to disrupt day-to-day activity to show how important this is, to end the siege in Gaza,” said protester Olivia Levine, 31, an actor and writer.
“Hopefully, actions scale up. Day-to-day activity needs to be scaled up to secure a ceasefire and the end of occupation. This is just the start.”
“The siege on Gaza needs to end and I’m ready to put my body on the line to end it,” said another protester as she was led away by a police officer with her hands behind her back, video showed.
The protests were organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, among other groups, they said on X, formerly Twitter.