Overview

• More than 200 protesters filled the lobby of Sen. Alex Padilla’s San Francisco office, demanding he oppose supplying arms to Israel and calling for an end to the Gaza war.
• Police warned those inside they could be arrested unless they left, more than half exited, and a core group stayed as organizers pledged to remain until Padilla commits to stopping arms shipments.
• Parallel actions included over 80 people entering Sen. Adam Schiff’s Los Angeles office, about 100 disrupting a policy summit in Sacramento, and a rally outside Padilla’s San Diego office.
• Padilla and Schiff were singled out after both voted last month against a Senate resolution that would have blocked U.S. arms sales to Israel.
• Protesters, including rabbis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, displayed signs such as “Stop Arming Israel,” citing more than 60,000 deaths in Gaza reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and a recent strike that killed at least 20 at a main hospital.