The massive sit-in was organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City, which said several thousand people blocked the station's main hall. She confirmed that it was "the largest act of civil disobedience that New York City has witnessed in twenty years."

Hundreds of people were arrested on Friday in New York during a demonstration organized by a Jewish movement to protest the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, according to police and organizers.

The New York Police Department announced the arrest of at least 200 people, while organizers confirmed that the arrests included 300 people during the dispersal of the gathering inside Grand Central Station.

Pictures taken at the scene showed long lines of young men with their hands tied and wearing cotton T-shirts reading “Not in our name” and “Ceasefire now.”

The large sit-in was organized by the group "Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City", which said that several thousand people blocked the main hall of the station. She confirmed that it was "the largest act of civil disobedience that New York City has witnessed in twenty years."

Scenes showed the station crowded with protesters who raised banners reading “Freedom for the Palestinians” and “Mourn for the dead and fight for the living.”

The rabbis kicked off the gathering by lighting holiday candles on the Sabbath and reciting the Jewish prayer for the dead.

Rabbi May Yee said in a statement published by the organizers, “The Sabbath is usually a day of rest, but we cannot rest while genocide is being committed in our name.”

She added, "The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are closely intertwined, and security can only come from establishing justice, equality, and freedom for all."

The Ministry of Health of the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, announced that 7,326 people were killed, most of them civilians, including more than three thousand children, in the Strip as a result of the heavy bombing operations launched by the Israeli occupation in response to the attack on October 7.