The UK capital's Metropolitan Police said officers had detained "more than 50 people" at the demonstration in Parliament Square, with further arrests expected after organisers said up to 700 people had turned out.

"Our interventions continue," the Met said on X, announcing the arrests. "We have significant resources deployed to this operation. It will take time but we will arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action."

Attendees, bearing signs saying "oppose genocide, support Palestine Action" and other slogans, applauded those being arrested and shouted "shame on you" at officers.

"Let them arrest us all," Richard Bull, 42, a wheelchair user in attendance, told AFP.

"This government has gone too far. I have nothing to feel ashamed of."

A group called Defend our Juries organised the event as part of what it called an escalation in its "lift the ban" campaign seeking to reverse the government's decision.

It said in a press release that it suspected police had been interfering in its attempts to organise opposition to Palestine Action's ban, noting a web-hosting company shut down its website earlier this week.

London's Met Police and other UK forces have made scores of similar arrests on previous weekends since the government outlawed Palestine Action on July 5.

Anyone expressing support for a proscribed group risks arrest under UK anti-terror laws.

Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with supporting Palestine Action following their arrests at a July 5 demo.

The government banned the group days after several of its activists broke into an air force base in southern England, causing an estimated pound7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft.

The interior ministry noted ahead of Saturday's protests that its members were also suspected of other "serious attacks" that involved "violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage".

Critics, including NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have lambasted the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.

Amnesty International UK Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh wrote to Met Police chief Mark Rowley this week urging restraint be exercised when policing people holding placards expressing support for Palestine Action.

The NGO has argued arrests of such people are in breach of international human rights law.

A UK court challenge against the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terror organisation will be heard later this year.

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