By ANEETA BHOLE and ALEX HAMMER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Anti-Israel protesters and police clashed in Brooklyn after thousands flooded a predominantly Arab and Middle Eastern neighborhood Saturday night.
The protest in Bay Ridge saw thousands of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators chant ‘move, cops, get out the way. We know you’re Israeli-trained’ as they descended on the community, stopping traffic and lighting fires in the process.
Part of the procession, billed online as Flood Brooklyn for Palestine, began to clash with NYPD officers as night fell, video shows – as their numbers swelled to an estimated 5,000 over the course of the day.
The officers were subsequently filmed trying to usher them out of a intersection along Fifth Avenue where they had shut down traffic, during which an unspecified number of pro-Palestinians were arrested and taken into custody.
Several cops were seen punching protesters in the fray, which came after ralliers gathered to demand the US withdraw support for Israel. Armed with Palestinian flags and signs, much of the group refused to comply with cops’ demands.
‘Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here!’ protesters city were heard shouting from within the frenzy, which, thanks to police, was confined to the most part around 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
‘We will free Palestine within our lifetime!’ others cried, touting signs reading, ‘We stand with Palestine,’ and, ‘Once upon a time… There was humanity,’ along with other similar sentiments.
Meanwhile, other, more radical revelers – who ranged in age from preteens to seniors – clutched signage with scrawlings that insisted ‘Zionism is genocide,’ and that ‘Resistance is justified when people are occupied.’
The messages appeared to disregard – and even exonerate – the crimes carried out by Hamas since October 9, including the kidnapping of several Israeli and American citizens in an apparent declaration of war.
While the conflict is now underway overseas, domestic divisions have since surfaced stateside – spurring dueling demonstrations across the nation.
Bay Ridge on Saturday was no different – despite pro-Israelis being kept away from the procession by members of the NYPD.
Footage from the neighborhood over the course of the night, though, showed how the demonstration still devolved – as officers tasked with keeping a handle on the chaos quickly found themselves overwhelmed as the group grew.
Amid the furor, one protestor was heard calling for the ‘full liberation of all of Palestine… to every single inch, from river to the sea.’
Donning a T-shirt of one of the event’s organizers, the Palestinian-led Within Our Lifetime, the woman also reportedly shouted: ‘We are not like other groups simply calling for a cease-fire; We are calling not simply for an end to genocide.’
Instead, she said, ‘We are calling for an end to the siege, an end to the blockade.
‘An end to the occupation,’ she specified.
Thousands of other women attended the rally, which at first started peacefully but devolved shortly after the sun set.
Aside from the local Palestinian community, several members of other groups – for the most part Middle Eastern – were also in attendance, for a gathering that Within Our Lifetime had advertised as a means to ‘end US-sponsored genocide in Gaza.’
The demonstration – dubbed Flood Brooklyn for Palestine – first gathered earlier, with initially peaceful revelers shouting chants like ‘We will free Palestine within our lifetime!’, as other held signs that read ‘We stand with Palestine,’ and, ‘Once upon a time… There was humanity’
The crowd grew throughout the afternoon, however, seeing 5th Avenue virtually shut down for several hours.
At first, police had been on standby to ensure the protest stayed peaceful, but were forced to take action as a handful of bad apples grew violent – thrusting the entire event into unrest.
Before at least a dozen were arrested, signage touted by the growing group gave a taste of some of the commotion to come – with many accusing Joe Biden and other US officials of ‘killing babies’ by way of the Israeli military.
Expletives were also common in the array of inscriptions seen across the crowd, while others accused Americans of ‘having blood on their hands’ by supporting Israel in the ongoing conflict.
Some Jews were even seen at the planned protest, with one telling ABC News that ‘as a Jewish person’, she ‘[did not] want the Jewish religion to be the reason for this occupation.’
Another added to the outlet of why she was there: ‘[All we are asking is] just treat the Palestinians as humans. They deserve every human right as any other civilians. Just treat a human as a human.
‘That’s all we’re asking for.’
The procession, one of dozens that have sprouted up across the city over the past week-and-a-half, has since dissipated – but those supporting Palestine have vowed to continue to voice their opinions to ensure no other innocents are killed.
The protest was preceded by another one in Manhattan on Friday, where some 139 pro-Palestinians were cuffed for blocking traffic in Midtown – by a group organized by the Democratic Socialists of America.
As the protest reached its apex Saturday night, an Israeli aircraft struck a compound beneath a mosque in the occupied West Bank – a location the country’s military said was being used by terrorists to organize attacks
Palestinian medics have confirmed that at least one person was killed, as Israel continues to shell the region after the Hamas-led attacks earlier in the week that killed at least 1,400 Israelis.
Israel said the compound beneath al-Ansar Mosque, in Jenin refugee camp, belonged to operatives from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who were responsible for attacks in recent months, releasing images that it said showed an entrance to a bunker under the mosque.
It also released a diagram that it said showed where militants had stored weapons, while footage on social media appeared to show the scene of the air strike, with a gaping hole in one of the mosque’s exterior walls.
Several dozen Palestinians are seen assessing the damage, as ambulance sirens blare in the background.
Meanwhile, more than 4,300 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry – including a disputed toll from this week’s hospital explosion, which threatened to thrust much of the world into a potential world war.
Gaza’s Health Ministry on Saturday said that more than a million of the territory’s people have been displaced, continuing to insist the hospital strike was the work of the IDF.
As the conflict continues to escalate – both overseas and on US soil – Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray revealed earlier this week that the bureau has seen an increase in domestic threats since last weekend’s attacks.
Wray, 56, made the comments while speaking to a gathering of police chiefs in San Diego Saturday, where he urged citizens to be vigilant and share intel to stop ‘lone actors’ inspired by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
With those attacks fresh in mind, the Trump appointee acknowledged an increase in stateside threats due to a so-called ‘heightened environment’, and called for an increase of vigilance.
He said the FBI is ‘committed to continuing confronting those threats’ – both in the US and overseas. He finished by offering his condolences to the people of Israel, expressing ‘outrage’ over ‘the sheer brutality and disregard for innocent lives there.’
The remarks came the same day that Israel defense officials said they are set to commence ‘significant military operations’ in Gaza, after an impending evacuation. Wray told attendees Saturday there’s ‘no question’ threats are on the rise as a result.
Now planning an impending ground invasion, Israel has also promised to cut off ‘the head of the snake’ with a military attack against Iran if Tehran-backed Hezbollah joins the war.
An outspoken enemy of both the US and Israel, Iran currently trains the militia group that for years has sought to join the Palestinian cause – a maneuver that some say could spell doom for Israel and its allies.
For one, Hezbollah – the main principle in the 2006 Lebanon War in Israel – is markedly more formidable than Hamas, and a great deal more well trained.
And with hundreds millions of dollars of funding from the Iranian state garnered each year, the group is considered by many to be a sleeping giant in the brewing war – one that can change the face of the conflict with a range of missiles and airstrikes.
The group, unlike Hamas, is also not confined to one small swath of land, and controls a large portion of both Beirut and southern Lebanon.
The group also has seats in the Lebanese parliament and more recently has controlled several other government ministries directly, and holds a de facto veto over the current Lebanese government.
Coupled with the Iranian backing, Hezbollah has emerged as a major potential threat – and Donald Trump on Wednesday even appeared to praise the decisions terror leaders have made to get there.
‘You know, Hezbollah is very smart,’ Trump told attendees at the Club 47 USA event in West Palm Beach, amid Israel’s concerns that the group could open another front in the war from the north and bring more countries into the conflict.
‘They’re all very smart.’
Currently engaged in a war of words with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Neytanyahu, he added that Israel needs to ‘strengthen itself up’, and said that Netanyahu had ‘let us all down’ b being unprepared for last weekend’s surprise assault.
He also laid blame on Netanyahu himself for the attack, in an ensuing interview aired with Brian Kilmeade.
He told the interviewer: ‘We have to protect Israel. There’s no choice. And we have to do it.’
Of Netanyahu – who has vowed to target what he called an ‘evil city’ in coming days with an anticipated ground assault – Trump said: ‘He has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here. He was not prepared.
‘He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared. And under Trump, they wouldn’t have had to be prepared.’