Two females have been arrested after an image appeared on social media earlier this month showing several women wearing images of paragliders in an apparent reference to the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7.
Social media footage of the pro-Palestinian protest in Whitehall on Oct. 14 showed two women with the paraglider photograph taped to the back of their coats, while a third woman bearing the same image held a placard.
The Metropolitan Police said two women, aged 29 and 26, came forward after recognising themselves in the social media footage, which was widely shared by newspapers and media outlets in the days after the protest on Oct. 14.
They were arrested on suspicion of “inviting support for a proscribed organisation” and are being held in custody.
Terrorists belonging to Hamas, a proscribed organisation in the UK, used paragliders to get across the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Oct. 7 and then took part in the massacre of around 1,400 Israelis.
After the paraglider images appeared in the media, Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, said people who used the protests to intimidate Jews “should shut up.”
Police Still Searching for 2 Others
The Met said they were still looking for the third woman, who was wearing a light blue medical face mask and a black head wrapping. She also wore a red shoulder bag.
They are also looking for a man who was waving a placard with the words, “I fully support Hamas” during a protest on Oct. 21 in Bond Street, central London.
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.”
He said, “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,” he added.
