UK's Sunak urges pro-Palestine groups to scrap Armistice Day march

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged pro-Palestinian groups to call off a march against Israel's war in Gaza scheduled to take place in London on Armistice Day.

"We continue to believe that planning protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful, and we urge organisers to reconsider," Sunak's spokesman told reporters.

He added that the government would "carefully consider any application" from the police to stop the protest from going ahead.

The organisers of the rally have so far defied pleas from the British capital's Metropolitan police force to postpone the demonstration planned for this Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets to demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel's aggression in Gaza.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said that according to the law, "there is no absolute power to ban protest," except in the most extreme cases.

"Therefore there will be a protest this weekend," he said in a statement.

"At this time, the intelligence surrounding the potential for serious disorder this weekend does not meet the threshold to apply for a ban," he added.

India-origin Braverman's role

A number of senior members of Sunak's ruling Conservative party have expressed anger at plans for protests on November 11, commemorating the end of fighting in World War I, and the sacrifice of armed forces personnel in all conflicts since 1914.

Sunak's hardline India-origin Interior Minister Suella Braverman has even branded the protests "hate marches".

Protest groups have not indicated they plan to march on Remembrance Sunday, when solemn ceremonies and two minutes' silence are held at war memorials up and down the country.

Organisers have vowed to avoid the Whitehall area of central London where the Cenotaph — the focal point of Remembrance Sunday — is located.

London has seen large demonstrations on four successive weekends since Hamas blitz on October 7 killed 1,400 people and took 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The Gaza-based resistance group says it launched Operation Al Aqsa Flood against Israel in response to the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and increased settler violence in occupied West Bank.

Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Palestinian territory and sent in ground troops, killing more than10,300 Palestinians, mostly children and women, wounding thousands and displacing over a million in the tiny enclave.