At least 60 arrested after peaceful NYC protests over the Israel-Hamas war

Calls for widespread protests that forced New York City into “high alert” Friday amid fears of violence turned out to be largely peaceful, with 61 arrests and minor skirmishes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Police arrested the bulk of those people after a nonviolent rally that started at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn around 6 p.m. Friday.

The Grand Army Plaza protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a self-described anti-Zionist group. Among the speakers was Rabbi Alissa Wise, who led the group in prayer.

“May the one who remembers allow us to hold in one hand 75 years of dispossession, occupation and violence, and in the other, a future of freedom,” she said.

The Brooklyn crowd, which numbered several hundred people, later marched to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s house, where they shut down the street for about an hour. Then they returned to Grand Army Plaza where they shut down Flatbush Avenue by sitting in a long row in front of the Brooklyn Public Library chanting “free Palestine.”

More than 100 law enforcement officials approached the activists, and officers arrested 58 protesters and corralled them into two full MTA buses.

All but one were given summonses and released, an NYPD spokesperson said on Saturday. The NYPD made 57 of those arrests in Brooklyn, while the rest took place in Manhattan.

One of the people arrested, 32-year-old Jennifer Hansen, was still awaiting arraignment Saturday afternoon, the New York Post reported. She allegedly tried to resist being placed in a police car in Midtown, according to the NYPD. She also allegedly kept trying to trip and kick police officers, the NYPD said. She is facing charges of resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, assault and disorderly conduct.

State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested after marching to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s house in Brooklyn.

“As the war drum beats across the U.S. & Palestinians continue to be killed indiscriminately, now is the time to stand up,” Mamdani wrote in a tweet about his arrest Friday evening.

Earlier in the day, enough protesters to fill two city blocks took to Times Square around 2:30 p.m. to voice support for Palestinians amid a heavy police presence.

Palestinian supporters packed the Broadway sidewalk between 41st and 42nd streets, waving flags and holding signs declaring, “Palestine will be free.” Vendors sold Palestinian flags for $5 and protesters held banners urging the United States to halt aid to Israel.

Brooklyn resident Kashif Choudry, 45, said he attended the Times Square rally to “show solidarity with the people of Palestine” in a city where he says Palestinian supporters are outnumbered. New York City is home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the world.

“Right now, [Palestinians] are being bombarded – a lot of civilians are trapped in Gaza,” Choudry said. “It’s a pretty bad situation. I feel like they are helpless.”

A couple dozen counter protesters, dressed in blue and white and waving Israeli flags, gathered on the north side of 42nd Street, where they shouted back and forth with the Palestine supporters on the south side.

“Who supports Israel? U-S-A,” they chanted.

Andrew Moger, who is Jewish and “squarely in support of Israel,” watched from the side as the pro-Palestinian rally got underway.

"Candidly, I’m trying to get educated, because I can't for the life of me understand how it's even possible that someone could support Hamas and be pro-Palestine,” Moger said.

By 4:30 p.m., the protesters started marching to the Israeli consulate on the East Side before continuing on to the United Nations, where the protestors gathered for a moment of silence before many headed out.

By the time the pro-Palestinian rally made it to the Israeli consulate, the counterprotesters had thinned out; a police-assembled pen for pro-Israel demonstrators sat empty.

At the Times Square protest, at least two demonstrators were arrested – one supporting Palestinians, the other supporting Israel.

The protests came less than a week after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, with Israeli officials quickly declaring war and launching a series of aggressive counterattacks. So far, the war has already resulted in more than 2,100 deaths, according to the Associated Press.

On Thursday, Israeli military forces warned that the entire population of northern Gaza should move south within 24 hours — an order the United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called “impossible …without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

A variety of pro-Palestinian groups organized the mass demonstration in Times Square, including Majlis Ash-Shura: Islamic Leadership Council of New York, an umbrella group that includes dozens of mosques and Muslim organizations.

Others listed as organizers on fliers and posters promoting the event include the Palestinian Youth Movement, The People’s Forum and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, among others.

The heavy police presence had been expected.

At a briefing on Thursday evening, Mayor Eric Adams promised an increased security presence throughout the city, though state and city leaders said there was no credible threat of an organized attack.

Friday’s protest followed a similar Times Square demonstration organized by many of the same groups last Sunday, a day after the initial attacks in Israel.

That protest came under intense criticism from dozens of public officials, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called the idea of a pro-Palestine rally in the immediate wake of the Hamas attacks “abhorrent.”

Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky and Caroline Lewis contributed reporting.

This story was updated to reflect that all but one of the protesters who were arrested were given summonses and released.