Thousands throw shoes at Downing Street in protest against Israeli action in Gaza

Up to 12,000 demonstrators took to the streets of London in protest against the attacks on Gaza, throwing shoes through the gates of Downing Street and setting fire to the Israeli flag. The main rally in Trafalgar Square passed off peacefully but later police wearing body armor and armed with gas canisters were involved in a standoff with 5,000 angry protesters who gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, throwing missiles at the building. There were outbursts of violence outside the Israeli Embassy and in nearby Hyde Park when protesters clashed with riot police and glass bottles were thrown at officers. Car windows were smashed and the quiet streets of Kensington were disturbed as pockets of sporadic violence broke out. Organizers of the demonstration said they will make an official complaint to Scotland Yard after claiming that riot police charged protesters, injuring many of them. Respect MP George Galloway was among the protesters who claimed they were surrounded by police in an underpass in Hyde Park as they made their way towards the embassy. He said he and his daughter were thrown to the floor as police attempted to move the protesters. Galloway said: "It was very frightening. The police trapped us in the tunnel and attacked us repeatedly." Chris Nineham, an official of the Stop The War Coalition, added: "There was absolute pandemonium and people were falling over from the force of the police attacks. "The police forced us to go down a tunnel where we were met by three or four ranks of riot officers who then charged at us at least three times using their riot sticks to attack people." A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, however, said protesters had thrown missiles, attempted to push through police lines and drag officers back into the crowd. He said that police had made a 10 meter advance into the crowd to regain control of the protest using "recognized and proportionate tactics". He added that Galloway was among a number of people who were escorted through police lines for their safety. Organizers of the protest said they wanted to leave shoes at the gates of Downing Street as a Muslim symbol of disgust at the attacks. When they were prevented from doing so, protesters began throwing their footwear, mimicking Muntader al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush at a press conference last month. During the march, led by singer Annie Lennox and campaigner Bianca Jagger, demonstrators chanted "Shame on you, have my shoe" and "Brown terrorist". More than 5,000 others took part in protests outside the capital, including 2,000 in Manchester, 1,000 in Edinburgh, and hundreds more in Glasgow, Portsmouth, Bristol and elsewhere. Lennox said she hoped the scale of the protests would force a diplomatic solution. "We are looking at a huge human rights tragedy in front of us," she said. "The idea of an air assault combined with a ground war in such a tightly-packed area as Gaza is unimaginable. It will be a bloodbath."