There were protests outside the Israeli Embassy in London Tuesday for the third day in a row.

300 people gathered, most with placards saying things like “End the siege in Gaza”, “Free Palestine”, “Stop the Holocaust in Gaza”, or “Stop the Killing, Stop the Crime”.

It was freezing in London Tuesday.  The assembled crowd was varied with young and old,  Arab and non-Arab.

I spoke to Eileen Maclean who works for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She said she’d come to join the demonstration in Kensington, on the edge of Kensington Gardens, because she was “so angry” about what is going on, the military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has left over 350 Palestinians dead, a campaign that is Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ firing of rockets into southern Israel.

A couple of Brazilian tourists were next in line behind the police barricades.  Police were out in numbers, because the protests did get a bit rough on Sunday.

The Brazilians, of Lebanese origin, had seen the demonstrations on the news and wanted to come out and express support for the people of Gaza.  They said they were not against Israel and its right to exist.  They just wanted to see two states, Israel and Palestine, living together in peace.

A British pensioner, Richard Frost, chimed in next.  “We are giving Israel the hardware to destroy unarmed civilians to our eternal shame.”

And then Violetta Thompson, originally from Spain.  “They say they are destroying Hamas but they are destroying the little bit of infrastructure the Palestinians have left.  What do they want them to do? Live in sewers, like rats?”

A group of Palestinian women told me they had come out, because their family lives in Gaza.  They said “everyone is waiting for death”.

A group of ultra orthodox Jews joined, Jews with signs expressing support for the Palestinians, Jews whose version of the religion tells them there should not be a Jewish state until the Messiah comes.

The demonstration was just about to wind down, around sunset, when suddenly the shouts got louder, and the movement a bit more frenetic.  An Israeli flag went up in flames.  As the hustle and bustle of life busy Kensington continued around it all.  The police were relaxed, but never let down their guard.

And then it was over and everyone went home vowing to return on Wednesday as news of a possible truce between Israel and Hamas, if only a temporary one, crossed the wires.