Protestors back outside Blackburn bank over bombing of Gaza

The group made up of women and children held banners outside the bank on Darwen Street as part of the ongoing protests. It was the third time in less than a month the protestors had camped outside the bank.

Over the past four months protestors have been highlighting the links between Barclays and other companies and Israel.

They said the bank 'provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians'.

The demonstration came as there was growing international concerns that thousands more would be massacred in Gaza if there was an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. 

Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is providing refuge to more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population who have fled fighting elsewhere.

The bombing of Gaza has levelled entire neighbourhoods, driven the vast majority of Gaza’s population from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population to starvation.

Britain and the US who have until now stood back and watched the killing of thousands of innocent people have said they are 'concerned' over the planned invasion of Rafah. But stopped short of condemning the actions of the Israeli government.

Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah – over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering in the area.

“The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire.”

On October 7, Hamas carried out an attack in Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking hostages. Since then Israel has killed 28,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, and injured more than 60,000, many of them women and children.

Many pro-Palestine supporters say Israel has itself killed and kidnapped thousands in the occupied lands over a 75-year period.