Hundreds of Londoners protest Israel's deadly Jenin assault and slam UK anti-boycott bill

Hundreds of Londoners rallied in front of the Israeli embassy to the UK on Wednesday night to protest Israel's brutal aerial and ground assault on the Jenin refugee camp at the start of this week.

The attack which began on Monday and ended in the early hours of Wednesday left 13 Palestinians dead and hundreds injured. Much of the overcrowded camp has been destroyed and 3,000 residents have been displaced.

The scope of Israel's attack, which involved hundreds of soldiers, airstrikes and armoured bulldozers, is a marked escalation in a year which has seen Israel ramp up its aggression against the occupied Palestinians on all fronts - with settler 'pogroms' surging in recent weeks and scores of military raids on cities like Jenin, Nablus and Jericho.

"This was an attack by one of the most heavily armed countries in the world against a refugee camp, for God's sake," said Chris Nineham of the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) who was one of the speakers, referring to Israel's raid on the Jenin camp this week.

"This, as the current Israeli government openly admit, is part of an ongoing attempt to brutally suppress, repress and break the Palestinian people."

Speakers also took aim at the UK government's move to pass legislation banning the right of public bodies to adopt boycott, divestment and sanctions principles against Israel, with the proposed bill passing its second reading at the House of Commons on Monday, the same day Israel launched it's invasion of the refugee camp.

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed the "wretched bill" for its "singling out the Palestinian people for special mention" and "the very dangerous effect it will have on our free speech".

"I urge you to keep your eye on what's going on and make sure that you all get your own MPs not to abstain but to be there and vote against it!" he told protestors.

Hundreds of protesters have turned out for a rally outside Israel's embassy in London on Wednesday after a deadly Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank 👇https://t.co/9exnGNkNPJ

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 5, 2023

For his part, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal addressed the Palestinian people from the podium.

"We know that you will never end your resistance - we salute your courage, we salute your endurance, and we vow, here, today, to stand with you shoulder to shoulder, until the day of liberation arrives, until apartheid [...] is ended, and until the sun rises over a free Jerusalem, over a free, Gaza, over a free Yaffa, and over a free Jenin," he pledged. 

At least 190 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed so far this year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources from both sides.