IfNotNow projected this message on a building near the Midtown office of Sen. Chuck Schumer on Feb. 12 to protest Israeli military action in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.

By Louis Keene February 12, 2024

Hundreds of protesters fanned out across Manhattan Monday to shut down city roadways, bridges and tunnels to protest Israel’s invasion of Rafah, and briefly succeeded in taking over the train tunnel to Grand Central Station in one of the most disruptive public demonstrations since the Israel-Hamas war began.

The sprawling protest, billed as “Flood Manhattan for Rafah,” was called after Israel launched airstrikes on southern Gaza city where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians are seeking refuge. Israel has said that Rafah is a Hamas stronghold, and on Sunday the IDF freed two hostages there in an operation that the Palestinian Authority’s official television station said killed 74 Palestinians.

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The disruption began early in the day when protesters driving cars on the Brooklyn Bridge, and in the Holland and Midtown Tunnels slowed to a halt, stopping traffic behind them. The New York Police Department said it arrested 13 people and impounded eight cars in the incidents.

An NYPD spokesperson was unable to say Monday evening how many were arrested in the afternoon protests, or whether trains at Grand Central Station were delayed as a result of the action.

Later, hundreds marching from Union Square up Park Avenue veered into a train entrance to Grand Central Station, with protesters banging drums, cheering, and chanting, “The people united will never be defeated.”

Others chanted, “From the river to the sea” and “Allahu akbar,” or “God is greatest” in Arabic.

And outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Midtown office, Jewish protesters affiliated with IfNotNow called for a ceasefire, projecting a message onto a building across the street that tied Schumer’s signature on an Israeli military aid bill to the Rafah invasion and Palestinian deaths that have occurred since. Their protest, however, was not affiliated with the larger “Flood Manhattan” demonstration.

The size and duration of the nearly four-hour protest, which also gathered outside a constituent outreach event held by Mayor Eric Adams, seemed to signal that the movement to end the war, now in its fourth month, is not abating. New York’s demonstration was one of several held around the world Monday, including outside the White House, outside the Prime Minister’s residence in London, and in Berlin.

The White House has come under increasing fire for its support of the war, in which more than 28,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. (That tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, though the ministry says more than half have been women or children.) Some 1,100 people were killed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, and approximately 100 are believed to be held in captivity.

President Biden, after taking a firmly pro-Israel stance at the outset of the war, has begun voicing his concerns about the death toll. 

He publicly warned Israel Monday not to invade Rafah “without a credible plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than one million people sheltering there,” adding, “They need to be protected.”

Correction: A photo caption on an earlier version of this story incorrectly described IfNotNow’s protest near Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office. It was not affiliated with the larger “Flood Manhattan” demonstrations. 

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