Four women, one man arrested in pro-Palestine protests in Dublin
Gaza
.
A woman was arrested and later released after protesters sought to block a car from leaving the
Egyptian
embassy on Wednesday.
Three women and a man were then arrested on Thursday at a separate location in Dublin, said by the protesters involved to be the
Department of Justice
, and later released.
The Wednesday protest at the continued closure of the Rafah crossing between
Palestine
's Gaza Strip and Egypt took place after a public meeting at the nearby US embassy in Ballsbridge.
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It is understood the woman who was arrested approached the Egyptian embassy to hand in a letter of protest.
A spokesman for
An Garda Síochána
said gardaí were alerted to a public order incident and directed individuals to leave.
'One female, aged in her 40s, was arrested under the Public Order Act and taken to a Garda station in Dublin south central. She was released without charge to be dealt with under the adult caution scheme,' the spokesman said.
Three women and a man were arrested on Thursday at a separate location in Dublin and later released.
A Garda spokesman said the force was alerted to a public order incident on St Stephen's Green at approximately 2.45pm, again instructing them to vacate.
'Three women (30s and 40s) and a man (50s) were arrested under the Public Order Act and conveyed to a Garda station in Dublin city centre,' he said.
'They have all since been released without charge, to be considered under the adult caution scheme.'
Sara White (39) told The Irish Times she was one of the four pro-Palestine protesters brought to Pearse Street Garda station.
Ms White said the members of a 'rainbow coalition group' of activists were protesting at the Department of Justice when the arrests took place.
They planned 'to deliver a letter to the Ministers demanding [the] recalling of the Dáil so they could put pressure to open the borders to Gaza and let aid in,' she said.
'We had posters, we had pots and pans, we made noise, we asked repeatedly to speak and hand-deliver our letter and were refused.'
Ms White said the group was there for 30 to 40 minutes before gardaí came, after being warned that they were trespassing.
Ms White said the four were placed in cells and released at approximately 6.30pm without questioning.
Activist group Mothers Against Genocide shared a statement on social media on Thursday afternoon demanding the release of the four people who were arrested, which it said included one of their own members.
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