Pro-ceasefire activists closed the Manhattan Bridge for hours

Hundreds of protesters from an anti-Zionist Jewish group closed the Manhattan Bridge on Sunday, disrupting city traffic for hours.

The demonstration, organized by the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, started around 2 p.m., with a large police presence on the ground.

Drivers sat bumper to bumper for at least an hour as protesters blocked the Manhattan entrance to the bridge, which connects Canal Street in Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn. Police led vehicles out of the area as protesters hung a pro-Palestinian banner from the bridge over the East River.

At 3 p.m., demonstrators sat in the middle of the driveway under the grand arch and colonnade near Canal Street and the Bowery. Some waved Palestinian flags as they clenched their fists and chanted, “Let Gaza live.” A person climbed the stone facade of the arch and hung a Palestinian flag.

“We had to keep raising our voices and speaking out because there are thousands of Palestinians under the rubble right now,” Jay Saper, a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace, said at the demonstration.

The protest was peaceful and the bridge reopened around 5:30 p.m. Police did not immediately say whether anyone had been arrested.