Amid the ongoing Israel Gaza conflict, the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City today was temporarily disrupted when a group of pro-Palestinian protesters jumped the barricades and “glued themselves to Sixth Avenue,” ABC News is reporting.
ABC reports the protesters were removed by the New York Police Department, and are in custody.
Also during the parade, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts float held up a Palestinian flag, drawing several comments.
A four-day cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas was originally set to begin Thursday morning, but Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari has now announced the cease-fire will start at 7am local time Friday.
The most recent, and ongoing, Middle East conflict began when Hamas launched the October 7 attack on Israel, and Israel launched subsequent attacks on Gaza. Per the AP, the war, now in its seventh week, has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
After today’s parade ended, and according to the New York Post, at least 400 protesters gathered in Madison Square Park and marched toward Macy’s in nearby Herald Square, chanting “Long Live Intifada” and “American public do you see? Your taxes fund our misery.”
Other chants, per The Post, included, “From Palestine to the Phillippines, stop the US war machine,” and “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.”