TWO MEN WERE arrested last night during a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin.

Gardaí confirmed this morning that they attended “the public gathering” at the consulate in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. 

In a statement a garda spokesperson said that the crowd had dispersed before 11pm but before they did two men were “for alleged public order offences”.

There was a rally in support of Palestinians held outside Leinster House yesterday by TDs and representatives from People Before Profit, the Union of Students in Ireland and The Irish Anti War Movement (IAWM). The protest moved from Kildare Street to Shelbourne Road to the Israeli Embassy.. 

Participants at the event condemned the “Israeli occupation and oppression” of Palestine.

In a statement IAWM said: “As an anti-war and peace organisation we mourn the loss of all civilian life but we recognise that Palestinians have a legal right to defend themselves and fight back against continued attacks by the apartheid regime of Israel.”

More than 1,200 people have already been killed in violence in Israel and Gaza in the worst violence seen in the region since 2014.

Latest figures this morning according to AFP news agency put the death toll at 900 people dead in Israel following the militant attacks while there are 687 dead in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in response. 

Israel massed thousands of troops along the Gaza Strip after the country’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered a “complete siege” on the region as the military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes last night.

This was in response to Hamas militants attacked and kidnapped thousands of Israeli citizens over the weekend, including a mass-shooting at a music festival of which Irish-Israeli woman Kim Damti (22) is among those who still remain unaccounted for.