Two women have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after an appeal was launched to find pro-Palestine protesters photographed with images of paragliders on their tops.
Social media footage of a demonstration in Whitehall, on October 14, showed two women with the image taped to their clothes, while a third held a placard with it.
Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, used paragliders as part of its attack on Israel on October 7 which left more than 1,000 Israelis dead. Now, two women, aged 29 and 44, came forward after recognising themselves in the pictures, which were widely shared, the Met Police said on Monday evening.
They were arrested on suspicion of inviting support for a proscribed organisation and are still being held in custody.
The police are still looking for the third woman seen with the image of a paraglider on her top, as well as a man seen waving a placard with the words “I fully support Hamas”, during a protest on Bond Street on October 21.
Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “My officers are working night and day with our colleagues across the country to investigate suspected terrorism offences committed in the real world and online.
“I am grateful to the public who have reported information to us and I urge anyone who has information about the man and woman we are still seeking to please let us know.
“If the people in the pictures recognise themselves, I urge them to come forward so we can speak with them.”
It comes as the Government has cracked down on pro-Palestine protests, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman calling them "hate marches".
She said: "We’ve seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map.
“To my mind there is only one way to describe those marches: they are hate marches.”
She said police are concerned there are a “large number of bad actors who are deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold in a way which you or I or the vast majority of the British people would consider to be utterly odious”.
Downing Street has also expressed concerns over the chant “from the river to the sea", describing it as “deeply offensive” to many.
Ms Braverman has previously branded the slogan antisemitic and claimed that it is “widely understood” to call for the destruction of Israel but pro-Palestinian protesters have contested this definition.
