Dozens of Palestinian freedom activists blocked on Friday the building of the British Department of Trade and Treasury, demanding an end to arms supplies from that country to Israel.

Protesters occupied the lobby of the Old Admiralty building with exclamations of “British Government you can’t hide, we’ll try you for genocide,” the Morning Star newspaper stood out.

A spokesman for those taking part in the demonstrations told the newspaper that the action was being conducted at the aforementioned department because it is directly responsible for approving and signing licenses for arms exports to Israel.

Rioters pointed out that the United Kingdom offered Tel Aviv diplomatic, military, and economic support, which allowed the genocide and colonization of Palestine, whose territory was once under London’s control, to continue for a long time.

The Israeli Government is preparing a military ground operation in Rafah, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, and we will not allow the massacre of the Palestinian people to continue, in our name and with the money we pay in taxes, demonstrators stated.

Over 32,400 Palestinians have been killed and another 80,000 injured, mostly civilians, since Tel Aviv began bombing Gaza on October 7, when the Hamas resistance movement launched an operation against the Israeli occupation.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2015, the UK issued licenses for the supply of armaments to Israel worth £472 million (about $5.7 billion), according to figures from the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

An expert indicated, quoted by Morning Star, that each arms export requires a license that can be invalidated if it is shown that they can be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law. In December, the Palestinian human rights organization Global Legal Action Network demanded a legal review of government export licenses for arms sales to Israel, following a verdict of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

According to the ICC, Israel may be committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. However, in February, British High Court judges dismissed Global Legal Action Network’s lawsuit.