Gaza War: Why did pond water at US embassy turn blood red?

LONDON: British police have arrested the UK head of Greenpeace, alongside five other activists, after they poured 300 litres of blood-red dye into a pond at the U.S. embassy in protest against the U.S. sale of arms to Israel.

Will McCallum, the environmental campaign group’s UK head, and the others, disguised as delivery riders on bicycles with trailers, Greenpeace said, tipped the dye into the high-security embassy’s semi-circular pond.

McCallum and the others were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The Met Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace, said that the dye was biodegradable and designed to wash away naturally.

“We took this action because U.S. weapons continue to fuel an indiscriminate war that’s seen bombs dropped on schools and hospitals, entire neighbourhoods blasted to rubble, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives obliterated,” she said in a statement.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza was launched after Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, retaliatory attacks by Israel have left over 50,000 Palestinians dead, health authorities in Gaza say.

Earlier, an Israeli military official said that reserve pilots, who publicly called for securing the release of hostages even at the cost of ending the Gaza war, would be dismissed from the air force.

“With the full backing of the chief of the General Staff, the commander of the IAF (Israeli air force) has decided that any active reservist who signed the letter will not be able to continue serving in the IDF (military),” the official told AFP in response to a letter signed by around 1,000 reserve and retired pilots.

The letter, which was published on a full page in multiple daily newspapers, directly challenges the policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has insisted that increased military pressure on Gaza is the only way to get Palestinian fighters to release hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack.