BREAKING: Pro-Palestinian protesters surround White House, clash with police

Police clashed with Gaza protesters on Saturday morning as the demonstrators attempted to surround the White House in Washington DC.   

As the protest ensued, officers were in the process of making an arrest of a woman and the other demonstrators around them started to follow, chanting, "Let her go!" A mob surrounded the officers in an attempt to make the arrest and could be seen pushing the policeman.    
 

 
Demonstrators attempted to pull the arrested woman away from the police officers and were eventually successful in helping her to escape. During the clash with police, mace was also used by the officers to quell the mob, according to reporter Jordan Fischer. 

Other protesters cheered after they set the suspect free from the police as she was being arrested. 

At one point during the protest, a man wearing a Hamas headband lifted up a mask of Joe Biden with blood stains after others had defaced a monument. 

One protester was seen at the demonstration holding a sign that said, "F*ck Israel. Stand with Hamas." The man with the sign explained to an interviewer, "I support by any means necessary what Hamas can do to resist the genocide that Israel and the Jews who do it."   
  

  
Smoke bombs were also reportedly being set off in front of the White House during the protest.   
  

In advance of the protest, authorities placed barriers up in front of the White House to prevent the crowd from getting close to the government building. 

Fox News reported that the activist groups that helped to plan the protest to surround the White House included CODEPINK and the Council on American Islamic Relations. The ANSWER coalition was also part of the planning. A flyer from the group's website states, "Biden, we are your red line. Stop the genocide. Surround the White House!"

The organization said, in its plans for the protest, that it and other groups were "organizing buses, car caravans and other forms of transportation to Washington, DC" to surround the White House. 

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