A video of a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside Westfield Stratford City in East London was reposted on September 26, 2026, alongside a claim that security guards removed a large Palestinian flag and “arrested everyone involved.”
The video itself is authentic. The arrest claim is not.
The incident took place nine months earlier, on Boxing Day, December 26, 2025. London’s Metropolitan Police said after the event that no arrests were made and that no offences were disclosed.
What does the post claim?
The post was published on the X account Robin (@Robiiin_Hoodx) on September 26, 2026. It describes the demonstrators as “Hamas supporters” and claims that security intervened, removed the flag and “arrested everyone involved.”
The post does not explicitly say that the incident happened that day or in September 2026, but it also does not disclose that the footage dates from December 2025.
More importantly, two central claims in the caption are not supported by the evidence. No evidence was found that the participants were “Hamas supporters,” and the claim that everyone was arrested directly contradicts the police account.
Watch the video
https://x.com/Robiiin_Hoodx/status/2103826065948917963
The footage shows security personnel and participants pulling on the large Palestinian flag from opposite sides of the railing. It does not show people being handcuffed or taken away under arrest.
Other footage published on December 26 and 27, 2025 shows the same flag, the same area of the shopping centre and the same security intervention, allowing the reposted clip to be identified as footage from the original event.
What actually happened at Westfield Stratford?
According to the Metropolitan Police, officers were alerted to the incident at around 5:20 p.m. on December 26. Police estimated that around 100 pro-Palestinian supporters were involved in the demonstration, which took place across two floors of the shopping centre. Police said the activity disrupted members of the public and blocked access to some businesses.
Footage from the event shows a large Palestinian flag hanging over an upper-floor railing. Smaller flags and banners were also displayed, leaflets were distributed or dropped, and chants included “Free Palestine” and “Free the Filton 24.”
Local police officers attended and the group was dispersed with support from venue security. Police said no offences were disclosed and that there were no further incidents after the demonstration was dispersed.
Were the protesters arrested?
No.
In February 2026, the official Greater London Authority website published an answer to a question from London Assembly member Alex Wilson about the number of arrests made during the incident.
The answer, based on information supplied by the Metropolitan Police, was unequivocal: no arrests were made during the protests at Westfield Stratford.
Police also confirmed that a Section 35 dispersal order was authorized and put in place, but the crowd dispersed before enforcement action was required. A report published three days after the incident that directly quoted the Metropolitan Police likewise stated that no arrests had been made.
The September 2026 post’s claim that security “arrested everyone involved” is therefore false.
Were they Palestine Action activists?
Here, too, the situation is more nuanced than some early reports suggested.
Palestine Action was proscribed in the United Kingdom in July 2025. However, the Metropolitan Police later said that the organization involved in the Westfield demonstration was not Palestine Action and was not another proscribed organization.
The protest did, however, have a clear connection to a campaign supporting detainees linked to alleged Palestine Action operations.
Among the chants was “Free the Filton 24,” referring to a group of defendants and detainees connected to a break-in and damage at an Elbit Systems UK facility in Filton, near Bristol.
Evidence from the day of the protest and subsequent reporting points to activists associated with Prayers for Gaza as having promoted or been connected with the action, although police did not publicly identify the organization by name.
It is therefore important to distinguish between supporting detainees linked to alleged Palestine Action operations and claiming that Palestine Action itself organized the demonstration.
What about the claim that they were “Hamas supporters”?
No factual basis for that description was found.
The video does not show Hamas flags, Hamas symbols or other material identifying participants with the organization. The Metropolitan Police did not describe them as Hamas supporters, but as pro-Palestinian supporters.
A Palestinian flag by itself is not evidence of support for Hamas.
So what is true and what is not?
The video is authentic and was filmed at Westfield Stratford City in London on December 26, 2025.
Police estimated that around 100 protesters took part. The activity occurred across two floors, disrupted members of the public and blocked access to some businesses. Security intervened over the flag, police attended, the group was dispersed and a dispersal order was put in place.
But contrary to the claim now accompanying the footage, no one was arrested during the demonstration. The description of the participants as “Hamas supporters” is also unsupported by the evidence found.
This is a case in which the footage itself is authentic, but a caption added months later contains information that does not match the official record of the event.
