LONDON (AP) — Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters urged Wimbledon to drop Barclays as a sponsor Monday because of the British bank’s business dealings with Israel.

About two dozen protesters from Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstrated near the main entrance of the All England Club, as thousands of fans arrived for Day 1 of the tennis tournament.

“They’re the bank for the arms companies that are obviously supplying weapons to Israel,” protester Khalid Zalmay told The Associated Press. “We should not be arming Israel, we should not be allowing anybody to facilitate arming them, and I think ties should be cut with Israel, the same way that ties were cut with Russia.”

One protester held a sign that said Barclays is a “sponsor of Wimbledon and genocide.”

Wimbledon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barclays said it is “proud of our partnership with Wimbledon” and defended its business practices.

“We provide a range of financial services and products to companies supplying defense products to the UK, NATO and its allies,” the company statement said. “As NATO, the EU and UK seek to increase their defense capabilities in response to increasing geopolitical threats, the provision of financial products and services to the defense sector is becoming increasingly important.”

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. 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.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 56,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.