YouTube prankster dresses as cop and waves Palestinian flag at Camden rally – as Police are penned in by protesters after making arrests at Brixton march

• Social media star Goubtube pictured dressed as police officer at Palestine rally
• At Brixton rally, officers were surrounded after arresting two 
• READ MORE: London council U-TURNS on canceling Hanukkah ceremony

A YouTube prankster was pictured dressed as a police officer and waving a Palestinian flag as hundreds of Pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets for the first time since Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas came to an end.

Elsewhere in London, Met Police officers were ‘surrounded’ by demonstrators and prevented from leaving after making two arrests at a pro-Palestine march in Brixton, the force said.

Social media personality Goubran Bahou, known as ‘Goubtube’, was seen dressed as a police officer and waving the flag in front of smiling protesters outside Camden Town Hall in London at around 2.45pm today.

Bahou, 33, was also pictured being confronted by a police officer as he was dressed in a convincing police uniform.

Section 90 of the Police Act 1996 says it is a crime to impersonate a police officer or wear ‘any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive’.

The Met have confirmed that a criminal investigation has been launched into the images shared today. 

YouTube prankster Goubtube – real name Goubran Bahou – was pictured dressed as a police officer and waving a Palestinian flag as hundreds of Pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets

Bahou (right), 33, was pictured being confronted by a police officer as he was dressed in a convincing police uniform

Bahou, known as ‘Goubtube’, dressed as a police officer and waving the Palestinian flag in front of smiling protesters outside Camden Town Hall in London at around 2.45pm today

Social media personality Goubtube dressed as a police officer, takes part in a Day of Action for Palestine, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, outside Camden Town Hall

A police van was again stopped as officers attempted to drive away with a teenage boy arrested for criminal damage of a patrol vehicle on nearby Saltoun Road

A police spokesperson said: ‘A criminal investigation has been launched after photos were shared with the Met that show a man wearing items of police uniform.

‘We understand the photos, in which the man can be seen waving a Palestinian flag, were taken in the vicinity of a pro-Palestinian protest held in Camden on the afternoon of Saturday, 2 December.’

This comes after the popular online personality, who has more than six million followers across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, pulled another pro-Palestine stunt when he projected Palestinian flag on Big Ben in October 7.

In an update on X, the Met said it arrested one man for a racially aggravated public order offence in Windrush Square, Brixton, because of a placard he was carrying.

When police attempted to leave the area with him, protesters blocked their path before they were removed by other officers.

A police van was again stopped as officers attempted to drive away with a teenage boy arrested for criminal damage of a patrol vehicle on nearby Saltoun Road.

A spokesman for the Met said on X: ‘Officers policing the pro-Palestinian protest in Brixton have arrested a man in Windrush Square on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

‘The arrest relates to a placard he was carrying.

‘When officers tried to leave the area their vehicle was surrounded by other protesters. Some sat in the road blocking their path.

‘Additional officers were deployed and the arrested man is now on his way to custody. Officers remain at the scene and will take action if further offences take place.

‘Officers in nearby Saltoun Road have arrested a teenage male on suspicion of criminal damage of a police vehicle.

‘Again, a number of people tried to obstruct the police van as it drove off. They were moved out of the way by officers. The male is now in custody.’

Scotland Yard earlier said it had a ‘locally led police plan’ in place across the capital for the ‘day of action’, with Palestinian solidarity assemblies taking place in an estimated 13 boroughs across the afternoon.

Around 200 people gathered in Camden, within the constituency of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, where activists challenged him to call for a ceasefire, while hundreds of marchers congregated at Plashet Park in the east of the capital.

In Camberwell, south London, dozens gathered to chant ‘Stop bombing children’ and ‘Netanyahu, shame on you’ as officers from the Met watched on, while scores gathered outside Islington Town Hall to write messages of solidarity on a large sheet.

The protests were not on the scale of the mass gatherings seen in central London every weekend for the last two months. Police previously said there were 300,000 people on the Pro-Palestine march in London on November 11 – the largest gathering yet – although organisers estimated there were ‘more than 800,000’.

Protests are planned in 13 London boroughs throughout Saturday – the Met says it has local plans in place

Protesters gathered outside Camden Town Hall in central London to call for a ceasefire

Scores of people gathered outside Islington Town Hall waving banners calling for ‘freedom for Palestine’ 

People wrote messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people on red hearts, which they attached to a large sheet with safety pins

Pro-Palestine protesters also gathered on Camden High Street to challenge constituency MP and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer

Met commanders said they would be approaching the protests with a ‘positive and decisive attitude’ – but had warned they would not tolerate support for proscribed terror groups such as Hamas or hate speech.

The protests came as police continue to hunt for suspects in hate crime suspects during previous protests, and for far-right counter protesters linked to disruption on Armistice Day.

Saturday’s protests have been divided across an estimated 13 London boroughs as well as more than 30 towns and cities across the UK. 

READ MORE: Israel prepares for year-long Gaza war: 200 Palestinians killed in IDF airstrikes after Hamas rocket shatters seven-day ceasefire ending hostage exchange 

The Stop the War Coalition said events were planned in Camden, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Enfield, Hounslow, Islington, Lewisham, Southwark and Wimbledon. 

Jeremy Corbyn is among those expected to speak at the Tower Hamlets rally at the Atrium, which was expected to begin at 3pm.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign says further protests were planned for Hackney, Harrow, Kilburn and Tottenham. 

Around 200 pro-Palestine demonstrators are marching towards Euston after gathering in Camden Town.

People were seen carrying placards accusing the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of having blood on his hands while others held banners reading: ‘Jews against genocide.’

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine, Met Police Gold Commander for the weekend, said before the protests began: ‘We know that the impact of the conflict in the Middle East continues to be felt here in London, in particular by Jewish and Muslim communities.

‘The ceasefire that has held for the past week has now ended which will renew concerns and fears in those communities most directly affected.

‘Officers will keep this in mind as we approach another weekend of protest. While the scale of the events will be reduced in comparison to previous weeks, our policing approach to protest will be unchanged.

‘We will continue to recognise the right to protest however that must be done lawfully.

‘Officers will approach these events with a positive and decisive attitude (but) we will not hesitate to take action where antisocial behaviour, hate crime or expressions of support for proscribed organisations take place.’

Other rallies are planned across the UK in cities including Bristol, Cardiff, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and York.

Grieving family members whose loved ones have been killed in the conflict will also lead a vigil outside Downing Street on Sunday ‘for all those suffering’ because of the most recent outbreak of fighting.

Protesters gathered in Camberwell, south London to protest the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas

Marchers walk through East London as they head towards Plashet Park for a larger gathering

Police monitoring a pro-Palestine protest on Vauxhall Bridge on Armistice Day, November 11

Pro-Palestine protesters march in Whitehall on November 25 after a temporary ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hamas

Police say the gatherings across London today are not expected to affect the centre of the capital (pictured: a protest in Trafalgar Square on November 4)

Rallies were expected in 13 London boroughs on Saturday, with further action outside Downing Street on Sunday (pictured: a protest on October 21)

SThe protests were the first to take place since the end of the temporary ceasefire (pictured: a man waving a flare at a protest on October 9, two days after Hamas entered Israel)

The event, Building Bridges, has been organised by Together for Humanity and will see faith leaders and politicians join grieving families ‘in the first mass event of its kind’ since Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7. 

Among those attending are the organisation’s co-founder Brendan Cox, widower of Labour MP Jo Cox, Palestinian-Israeli singer and actress Mira Awad, Rabbi David Mason of the Muswell Hill Synagogue and Lib Dem MP Layla Moran. 

Former prime minister Liz Truss, meanwhile, has accused pro-Palestinian activists of demonstrating ‘in favour of terrorists’ in an interview with Fox News.

READ MORE: Lionesses of the Desert: Inside Israel’s all-female tank unit taking on Hamas terrorists – and led by British captain, 20, who says her role is ‘a dream come true’ 

Speaking to the US network in Washington DC, the ex-PM – who ran the country for a record 49 days – suggested the protests showed the ‘woke left’ would ‘rather support authoritarian regimes’ than the West.

She said: ‘On the streets of London, I see people demonstrating in favour of terrorists, and that being allowed to happen.

‘They are about saying, ‘The way of life that we have in Britain or America, that is not the right way of life.

”Actually, we would rather support terrorists, we’d rather support authoritarian regimes’.’

In addition to the locally led events related to the conflict in the Middle East, the Met also policed a Just Stop Oil outside New Scotland Yard and the Supreme Court.

At least two climate activists, who gathered outside New Scotland Yard on Saturday afternoon, were carried into waiting police vans.

Uniformed officers watched as the protesters held speeches in which they said they would take their protest to other London sites, which they dubbed ‘centres of oppression’, such as the Supreme Court.

Before the group moved to Parliament Square, where the Supreme Court is, an activist on a loudspeaker told the small group: ‘The police think they can stop our protests. They can never stop our protests.’

Just Stop Oil staged protests outside New Scotland Yard and the Supreme Court at the same time as the pro-Palestinian actions across London

The Met Police said it arrested two people during Saturday’s action by the eco-activist group

The force later said on social media that claims it had arrested people for standing on the pavement were ‘not accurate’

Just Stop Oil said its march was in solidarity with the ‘innocent climate prisoners’ who had been detained by the police during marches

JSO, which has carried out a string of recent ‘slow marches’, billed Saturday’s protest as a ‘mass march’ through the capital ‘in solidarity with the innocent climate prisoners’.

It came after the Met said it had ‘arrested JSO activists on 649 occasions, with 338 charges secured so far’ since the ‘start of their latest campaign of disruption’ on October 30.

The force later confirmed arrests were made during Saturday’s protest but denied they were for allegedly demonstrating on a pavement, as claimed by JSO.

In a tweet, the Met said ‘that’s not accurate’.

The force spokesman added: ‘One of these activists was arrested for breaching bail conditions set by the court.

‘The other was wanted for a racially aggravated public order offence after antisemitic remarks were made at a protest. Both are on their way to custody.’

Prior to the action on Saturday the Met said that it has ‘arrested JSO activists on 649 occasions, with 338 charges secured so far’ since the ‘start of their latest campaign of disruption’ on October 30.

Met chiefs are also continuing to appeal for information on dozens of people suspected of offences at pro-Palestinian protests throughout the last two months and a far-right counter protest that took place on November 11.

Saturday’s protests will be the first to take place since the end of the ceasefire brokered between Israel and Hamas, which saw nearly 80 Israeli captives as well as other foreign nationals freed by the terrorists in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The truce officially expired at 5am GMT on Friday – but the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claim Hamas ‘violated’ it beforehand by launching a salvo of rockets into Sderot, close to the border with Gaza.

In response, the ‘IDF renewed fire against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip’, it announced on X, formerly Twitter, with reports indicating it had dropped leaflets urging Gaza residents to leave parts of southern Gaza.

Israel has pounded more targets in the southern Gaza strip on Saturday, intensifying the renewed offensive against what it says are Hamas targets.

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of combat on Friday morning, even as the US urged Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.

Combat actions have resumed between Israel and Hamas after the temporary ceasefire came to an end on Friday (pictured: IDF soldiers inside the Gaza Strip)

The IDF claims Hamas violated the ceasefire in the hours before its official end with rockets (pictured: shells fired by Hamas into Israel on December 1)

Israel has resumed its bombardment of what it says are Hamas targets in the southern Gaza strip (pictured: shelling in Rafah, southern Gaza)

Palestinian health authorities claim 200 people have been killed by Israeli shelling since the resumption of hostilities (pictured: Palestinians at Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis)

A man carries an injured Palestinian child to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to receive treatment after Israeli shelling hit Deir al-Balah in Gaza

Smoke rises from buildings in the Gaza Strip after they were bombed by Israel on December 1

‘This is going to be very important going forward,’ secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai.

‘It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.’

While leaflets were dropped urging Gazans to leave, residents told the AP news agency they had nowhere to go. 

Israel released an online map showing residents where they could evacuate to – but critics say communications and electricity have been crippled, reducing its usefulness.

The United Nations office for Palestine said of Israel’s efforts: ‘The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to.’

Unable to go into the battleground of north Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, the only escape for Palestinians on the ground is to move around within the 85 sq mile area.

Lord Ricketts, who served as the UK’s first national security adviser, said Israel is in danger of causing ‘massive civilian casualties’ if it takes the fight to Hamas in southern Gaza.

The peer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They’ve got an increasing dilemma. They ordered a million people from the north to leave into the south.

‘They now have two million people there, many of them displaced, many of them living out in the open. They simply can’t use the same kind of armoured all-out assault that they used in the north without massive civilian casualties.’

He said Tel Aviv’s plan to destroy Hamas ‘seems to me to be impossible’ due to the political and social nature of the organisation.

Israeli troops on the ground in the northern Gaza Strip on December 2

Smoke rises after an explosion on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, December 2

People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 2, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza

Palestinians sit on a trailer with their belongings as they evacuate from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip

Israel dropped leaflets on the southern Gaza Strip telling residents to leave following the end of the ceasefire (pictured: people leaving their homes in Khan Younis)

Despite the fresh violence, Qatari and Egyptian mediators are still negotiating a new extension of the seven-day truce. 

Meanwhile, IDF officials said Hamas’ claims that ten-month-old Kfir Bibas, his brother Ariel and mother Shiri were killed in an airstrike remain unverified.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: ‘Hamas’ claims about the Bibas family are still unverified. The published documentation is psychological terrorism.’

Hamas’ October 7 incursion killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel’s counter-offensive has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

However, the death toll in Gaza is likely to be much higher, as the health authority has only sporadically updated the count since November 11 because its infrastructure has been hampered by Israel’s ongoing bombardment. 

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