Protesters demand Gaza cease-fire during sit-in at US Capitol

WASHINGTON (AA) – More than 100 protesters held a sit-in demonstration Tuesday inside the Cannon Rotunda on Capitol Hill calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

The demonstrators, affiliated with rights group Mennonite Action, engaged in singing hymns and chanting slogans such as “Ceasefire” and “Let Gaza live!”

Later, Capitol Police intervened, with the group saying that 150 of its members were arrested.

Police said in a statement they charged 130 demonstrators with “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.”

“Demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional Buildings, so when they started to protest and refused to stop, we began arresting them,” the statement said.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 24,285 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 61,154 injured, said Palestinian health authorities.

According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.