Police Start Detaining Pro-Palestine Protesters on Capitol Hill

Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters have taken to the Cannon Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol, asking for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Capitol Police were detaining them as "demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional Buildings."

Outside, in front of the Capitol, protesters are chanting, "Ceasefire now!" and, "Not in our name." The group later chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a slogan that many Jews say is a call to eradicate the nation of Israel.

Protest leaders there said 200 protestors had been detained, later updating that number to 400.

Police told a Messenger reporter that between 1,000 and 1,200 people attended the protest.

Earlier Wednesday, pro-Palestinian hecklers disrupted a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of Jacob Lew, the Biden administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel.

One yelled, “How many children need to be killed?” He then chanted: “We need a ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now” before he was escorted out of the room.

Soon after, a woman shouted, “Stop the genocide in Gaza! And we’re funding it!” She, too, was escorted out of the hearing room.

“Now is not the time to play political games,” Foreign Relations Chairman Ben Cardin of Maryland admonished.