San Francisco police arrested 70 pro-Palestinian protesters Monday who were occupying a building where the Israeli consulate is located. The building, located in the city’s Financial District, had been occupied for several hours before police moved in.
None of the protesters made it into the consular offices. All of them have been released from the San Francisco County Jail, according to SFPD.
The Israeli Consulate condemned the demonstrators’ actions in a statement:
We are appalled, but not surprised, at the attempt by a handful of pro-Hamas rioters to violently compromise our ability to operate as a diplomatic mission. They will not succeed. The people who entered the lobby of the building where the Consulate is situated are the same people who have celebrated the rape, maiming, burning alive, and murder of hundreds of Israelis barely a day after October 7th. Since then, these mobs have been making campuses across the Bay Area inhospitable and even dangerous to Jews, and turning city council meetings into despicable spectacles of antisemitism and mass-atrocity denial. We thank SFPD for their rapid response and will continue to ensure that we provide all services as usual.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ attack in Israel on October 7. Attempts to broker a cease-fire are ongoing, but have so far been unsuccessful.
Read more about Monday’s arrests here.