Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protestors block Manhattan bridges and tunnel

Pro-Palestinian protestors blocked bridges and the Holland Tunnel out of Manhattan Monday morning, paralyzing rush hour traffic and sparking 325 arrests.

Protestors sat in the Brooklyn Bridge roadway with arms linked in concrete-filled tires and PVC pipes.

“You’re blocking traffic, you’re going to be arrested if you don’t leave,” said an NYPD officer addressing the protestors through a megaphone.

“By blocking the city’s exits, the protesters created—briefly, imperfectly—a physical analogue for the situation in Gaza, where there is no getting out,” a press release from protest organizers says.

Protestors on the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp onto the Brooklyn Bridge chanted “Free, free Palestine!” while blocking Brooklyn-bound traffic.

The ramp is named for the 16-year-old victim of an antisemitic shooting spree that took place on the bridge in 1994.

Across town at the Holland Tunnel, Port Authority cops said protestors began blocking the New Jersey-bound tube around 9:30 a.m.

Chanting “Israel bombs, USA pays,” the protestors blocked traffic for more than an hour.

Port Authority police cleared the tunnel entrance around 10:40 a.m. after arresting 120 people, a Port spokesperson said.

The protestors continued chanting from a pen on the roadside before being loaded into an MTA bus by police.

That bus, a requisitioned M20 trailed by multiple PAPD vehicles, was seen stuck in traffic on Canal St. shortly after 11 a.m., caught in the aftermath of protests at the Manhattan Bridge.

All crossings were cleared by police by 11:15 a.m., NYPD officials said.

A total of 325 people were arrested by NYPD and Port Authority cops. Many were released with desk appearance tickets to face misdemeanor charges in Manhattan Criminal Court at a future date rather than being put through the system for immediate arraignment, NYPD Chief John Chell said.

“I’m all for the protestors but don’t harm anybody else’s life,” said Romel Maharaj, who was stuck in traffic trying to get to New Jersey.

East Village resident Mia Kratchman, trapped in an Uber outside the tunnel, was even less sympathetic.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous and helping nobody,” she said of the protest. “As a person who takes this route every single day I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

Monday marks the beginning of the fourth month of war between Israel and Hamas, the political faction that controls Gaza.

Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 of last year, massacring some 1,200 people and taking at least 240 hostages.

Israel’s subsequent strikes on Gaza have killed more than 22,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Monday’s protest is the latest in a series of disruptions aiming to raise awareness of the situation in Gaza.

Protestors disrupted New Years Day travel last week with a blockade at Kennedy Airport and six were arrested after scuffling with NYPD officers at Rockefeller Center on Christmas Day.

Earlier, pro-Palestine protestors glued themselves to the pavement in November in an attempt to disrupt the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.