US anti-Israel protesters detained in Congress building

The demonstrators gathered inside the Cannon House Office Building on Tuesday to urge an end to weapons transfers to Israel, as they chanted slogans and carried banners reading "ceasefire now" and "let Gaza live.”

The protesters were dressed in red T-shirts bearing the phrases "not in our name" and "Jews say stop arming Israel."

Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized the protest, wrote on social media, "For the past 9 months, we've witnessed countless horrors in Gaza, committed in our names and funded” by our regime.

Tuesday’s demonstration comes a day before Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to Congress.

Protests are planned to coincide with Netanyahu's visit to the US, during which he will meet President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The activist group further noted that 400 people took part in the demonstration, adding that the protesters were arrested after US Capitol Police started a crackdown and broke up the rally inside the building.

"We told the people, who legally entered, to stop or they would be arrested. They did not stop," the police said, stressing, "Demonstrating inside the Congressional Buildings is against the law."

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

The US, Israel's major ally, has been providing military support to the regime. The administration of US President Joe Biden has defended its arms transfers to Israel, reasserting its commitment to the regime's security despite the genocidal war that has killed over 39,000 Palestinians, most of them women, children, and injured more than 90,000 others.