Anti-Israel protesters waved Hamas flags and held up a portrait of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a demonstration in New York City's Times Square on Wednesday, the New York Post reported.
About 300 protesters gathered for a demonstration organized by the Within Our Lifetime organization, apparently in response to a speech given by former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
During the demonstration, an American flag was burned on the ground while a protester waved a flag bearing the symbol of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas's military wing, over it.
Protesters chanted "From New York to Gaza, globalize the Intifada!" and "From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free!"
One protester held up a portrait of Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas's political wing who was assassinated in Tehran early Wednesday morning, as the crowd chanted in Arabic, "There is not God but Allah, and the martyr is beloved by Allah!"
Within Our Lifetime published a post eulogizing Haniyeh on Wednesday, calling him a “leader of Palestinian resistance.”
“The zionist project assumes that assassinations and massacres will halt the march of freedom from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, from the North to the South, but the 76 year-long history of the struggle for Palestine proves otherwise,” the group stated.
The protest was condemned by Congressman Ritchie Torres, who wrote on X: "If you are waving a Hamas flag in the heart of Times Square to protest the death of one of the world’s worst terrorists, Ismail Haniyeh, you are not 'pro-Palestinian.' You are pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, anti-American—anything but 'pro-Palestinian. Shilling for a barbaric terrorist organization that murdered 1200 Israelis and abducted civilians as old as 86 and as young as 9 months is itself barbaric."
This is not the first time anti-Israel protesters have burned the American flag in New York City. On July 4, America's Independence Day, anti-Israel protesters burned the American flag during a protest in Washington Square Park.