Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt traffic on Brooklyn Bridge, New York’s Newburgh-Beacon Bridge

NEW YORK – Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters rushed onto the Brooklyn Bridge Monday afternoon. 

They could be seen moving through vehicular traffic on the bridge at around 3:30 p.m. 

NYPD officers on bicycles followed the group onto the bridge. They started making arrests once a few protesters started lighting what appears to be traffic flares amid traffic. 

It was one of several similar protests nationwide. 

Earlier Monday, about a dozen protesters stopped westbound traffic on the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge over the Hudson River. 

The demonstrators say the civil disobedience was to call for a free Palestine and to bring attention what they say is “the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel against the people of Gaza.” 

New York State Police said the protesters at the Hamilton Fish Bridge were taken into custody. 

In Chicago, protesters blocked the entrance to O’Hare International Airport. Traffic at San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge was also shut down due to a protester blockade. The Interstate in Oakland, I-280, was also shut down due to protest activity.

The protests come a day after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on Israel that included hundreds of missiles and drones. It’s the first time the state of Iran has directly attacked Israel. The attack was said to be a reprisal for Israel’s strike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.     

There have been numerous pro-Palestinian protests in New York City and around the Tri-State Area after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which Israeli officials said left more than 1,200 dead and more than 200 hostages taken captive. That attack prompted Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel has been widely criticized for how it has prosecuted that war, which has left more than 33,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.