Local News

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5/KCBS/BCN/AP) ― More than 150 demonstrators succeeded in shutting down the San Francisco Federal Building for a brief time Monday to protest Israel's military action in Gaza.

They marched from the Israeli consulate downtown to the Federal Building, then sat with their arms linked and blocked the entrances to the building for about an hour, according to police. No one was arrested.

A group of protesters was blocking the entrance to the building around 11:15 a.m., chanting, "Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has to go."

They were holding signs that said "Gaza is Warsaw," and "Another Jew for Justice in Gaza: Free Palestine."

Others demonstrators were chanting "Stop bombing Gaza. Stop bombing children."

"I'm abhorred at the silence of our government," 53-year-old El Cerrito resident Toby Blome said.

Blome, who was carrying a rag doll she said symbolized the deaths of young Palestinian children, said demonstrators felt that their rights were being violated because they were not allowed into the building to talk to U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

A San Francisco police officer at the scene would not say whether there had been any problems or arrests related to the protest.

There was a far larger protest over the weekend, as some 600 protesters in San Francisco were among the thousands around the world to protest Israel's military offensive in Gaza on Saturday.

At Powell and Market Streets, demonstrators gathered with signs and Palestinian flags to condemn the Israeli air strikes that have lasted for almost a week and killed hundreds. They marched up Market Street to City Hall. Unlike the five previous protests in the city against Israel, there were no counter-protesters Saturday night.

"We would like it to end with a cease-fire which is something that Hamas has been pleading for… and it's something that the Israeli government is not open to hearing because they're not open to talking to Hamas, and I think that's really part of the big problem," said East Bay resident Laura Ostrow.

About two hours before the march's scheduled start, police were already at the scene prepared with barricades and a command post. While the last several demonstrations have not turned violent, wary officers said they were prepared for the worst.

In Europe, tens of thousands of people protested the on-going air strikes in demonstrations that were mostly peaceful.

However, some protesters in Athens threw stones and petrol bombs at Greek police outside the Israeli Embassy.

In Paris, police said 21,000 people marched through the streets, shouting slogans that included "We are all Palestinians." Later, a small group of protesters set fire to at least three cars and smashed shop and cafe windows.

Angry protests continued for a second day in Turkey, where about 5,000 demonstrators shouted "killer Israel" in downtown Ankara.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of reserve soldiers were mobilized as the offensive in Gaza widened with the launching of a ground invasion that Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "won't be short" or easy.

The Israeli military did not give out specific numbers. But it says it has expanded a call-up of some 9,000 reserves soldiers that began earlier this week.

Some of these reservists are being mobilized as a warning to Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon who fought a monthlong war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

Israeli ground troops began pouring into Gaza earlier Saturday. The incursion expanded an 8-day-old operation that had been conducted almost exclusively from the air.

It's been a week since the start of the Israeli strikes on Gaza. At least 460 people have been killed and about 1,700 wounded.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)