AT LEAST nine pro-Palestine activists were arrested today as hundreds blocked the entrance to the Foreign Office in London to demand that the government halt arms exports to Israel. 

Around 300 people took part in the demonstration, which was organised by Workers for a Free Palestine with support from members of Civil Service union PCS.

The union represents staff who work in the Foreign Office and Department for Business and Trade, which are involved in granting the licences. 

Members have asked to “cease work immediately” on arms export licences over fears they could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

Activists are calling on Foreign Secretary David Lammy to publish legal advice on arms sales to Israel amid concerns that the government is facilitating violations of international humanitarian law.

When in opposition, Mr Lammy called on the Tories to publish the advice and to suspend arms sales if the advice deemed the government to be complicit.

Protesters are now urging him to “practise what he preached,” while also demanding the government drops a legal challenge to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Activists told today of protesters being dragged across the floor by police trying to break the blockade.

Tania, a Unite member and organiser with Workers for a Free Palestine, said: “Keir Starmer and David Lammy have blood on their hands and we will not rest until they meet their legal and moral duty to end British complicity in war crimes, in accordance with the will of the people they purport to represent.”

Harriet, an NHS doctor and BMA member, said she could not stand by while the government “arms the regime which is turning hospitals into mass graves, targeting and killing the workers who save the lives of others, who are doing the same job as me. 

“We will keep shutting down the departments which enable arms exports … being used to wage a genocide in which the death toll could be as catastrophically high as 186,000 people, according to medical researchers.”  

The protest took place as Israel continued its horrifying attack on a humanitarian “safe zone” in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

At least 84 people were killed across Gaza on Tuesday alone and the Israeli military has designated 80 per cent of the Palestinian enclave as a “no-go zone.”