The story

Thousands of people gathered Saturday in London to protest Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, in one of several demonstrations planned across Britain.

Police estimated that as many as 12,000 people participated in the London rally, which organizers predicted would be the largest.

As they marched to Trafalgar Square from the River Thames, many threw or left behind shoes at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence.

Organizers had encouraged people to bring old shoes to show Prime Minister Gordon Brown their "disgust," in the spirit of Iraqi journalist Muntadhir Al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at President Bush two weeks ago while the American leader was in Baghdad.

"Gordon Brown, cloaking himself in Tony Blair's mantle, has joined with George Bush in stopping a unanimous call by the United Nations for Israel to stop bombing immediately," one organizer, Stop the War Coalition, said on its Web site. Read full article »

CNN's Lonzo Cook contributed to this report.

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