PROTESTERS will take to the streets of Britain on Saturday as pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza mounts, despite continuing vilification from government officials.

The leader of Hezbollah warned today that a wider regional conflict looms, saying “all scenarios are open” in the battle with Israel.

Protests in solidarity with Gaza will take place in towns and cities all over Britain on Saturday for the fourth week in a row.

In London, demonstrators will gather in boroughs for local actions before heading to a large rally in Trafalgar Square at 2.30pm.

Organisers have also announced similar actions will be planned next week on November 11, coinciding with Armistice Day – marking the end of the first world war.

They have pledged to avoid the Whitehall area where the Cenotaph war memorial – the focus of national remembrance events – is located and not to begin “until some significant time after” the two-minute silence has been observed.

But government ministers including PM Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have denounced the protest regardless.

Mr Sunak called it “provocative and disrespectful” while Ms Braverman said: “If it goes ahead there is an obvious risk of serious public disorder, violence and damage as well as giving offence to millions of decent British people.”

While the police will be responsible for on-the-day monitoring of the demonstration, the Home Secretary could grant them extra powers to prevent it from interrupting remembrance ceremonies, though these always happen on the Sunday.

The Public Order Act 1986 allows Ms Braverman to ban protests from certain areas if the Met believes there is a disorder risk.

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has written to the Mayor of London, Westminster Council and the Metropolitan Police “asking them to look very carefully at the powers that they have and to consider what options they have available.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan responded by saying that Mr Tugendhat should stop “posturing.”

The Met Police has also said there will be a “sharper focus” on using social media and face recognition to make arrests at the protests this weekend.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said attempts to smear the November 11 demonstration were “at best misinformed and at worse an incitement to public disorder.”

He said: “We note with special concern comments by far-right commentators like Douglas Murray calling for people ‘to come out and stop these barbarians.’

“This is a march calling for a ceasefire in order to stop the current slaughter in Gaza.

“To highlight this democratic action … as disrespectful is dangerous and disingenuous politicking that defames many hundreds of thousands of people who want the current violence to stop.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said that all those killed in wars should be remembered, including civilians in Gaza Saturday.

She wrote on X: “As niece of a soldier who lost his leg in Niemagen, daughter of a father who was on the landing craft in the Sicily invasion and of a mother whose boyfriend was shot down over Berlin, I find those who try to use Armistice Day for their own warmongering ends abhorrent.”

Tensions continue to flare in the Middle East amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Israel and the United States risk the events in Gaza spiralling into a “wider regional war.”

In a televised speech on Friday, Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah had been engaging with the Israelis on the border with Lebanon since October 8 but had no prior warning of the Hamas uprising a day earlier.

The Hezbollah leader called the events taking place in Gaza “a decisive battle that is not like previous wars.”

Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah had two goals: “The first is to stop the war in Gaza and the second is for Hamas to be victorious in this war.”

“Anyone who wants to prevent a regional war breaking out must quickly stop the fighting on the Gaza Strip,” he added.

Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s attacks and presence on the border was diverting large numbers of Israeli forces away from Gaza.

But “we will not be limited to this” and “all scenarios are open on the Lebanese front,” he said.

The Hezbollah leader accused the US of being entirely responsible for the war in Gaza and insisted that it “must also pay the price.”

He said his fighters were not deterred by US warnings not to get further involved in the conflict, saying: “Your fleets in the Mediterranean will not scare us.”

Mr Nasrallah called on Arab and Muslim countries to work together to stop the war on Gaza, including through an oil embargo on Israel.

Earlier today US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his third trip to the country since the war began, reiterated US support for Israel, saying it has the right to defend itself.

But he said a “humanitarian pause” was needed to boost aid deliveries to Palestinian civilians.

After meeting Mr Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “refuses a temporary ceasefire that doesn’t include a return of our hostages,” referring to the 240 people held by Hamas.

He said Israel was pressing ahead with “all of its power.”

Israel has allowed more than 260 trucks carrying food and medicine into Gaza, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough. Israeli authorities have refused to allow fuel in, saying Hamas is hoarding fuel for military use and would steal new supplies.

More than 500 trucks were required each day to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza before October 7.

Fierce fighting ground fighting has been reported with Israeli forces claiming to have encircled Gaza City.

Hamas’s military wing said early today that its fighters battled Israeli troops in several areas in Gaza and claimed they killed four soldiers on the northern edge of the city of Beit Lahiya.

Neither the reports from Israel nor Hamas could be independently verified.

More than 9,000 Palestinians, including 4,000 children, have been killed by the relentless Israeli air strikes carried out in retaliation for the surprise attack by Hamas in Gaza on October 7.

Thousands more are thought to be trapped or dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings.