They were joined in their rallies by trade unionists, holding banners and Palestinian flags outside a BAE Systems factory in southeastern England on Friday, targeting the United Kingdom’s biggest military supplier.

“Stop arming Israel”, read one sign at the protest at BAE’s Rochester, Kent, site, where the firm tests and assembles electronic equipment used on military aircraft and in surveillance systems.

Other placards read “no business as usual” and “taxpayers have blood on their hands”. Organisers said they were aiming to shut down the factory “which provides components for military aircraft currently being used by Israeli forces in the bombardment of Gaza”.

They said it was part of an “international day of action for Palestine” organised in response to a call by Palestinian trade unionists.

In the United States, demonstrators had gathered in front of the Northrop Grumman office complex in San Diego, California, on Thursday to protest the sale of their weapons to Israel, raising placards that read, “End the genocide of Gaza now”.