Hundreds gather at Edinburgh Waverley train station in support of Palestinians

Hundreds of people have gathered inside Edinburgh Waverley railway station to show their support for Palestinians amid continuing unrest in Gaza and Israel.

Protesters staged a sit-in at the station from around 4pm on Saturday afternoon.

It is unknown at this stage if the protest is causing disruption to services leaving the city.

It comes amid continuing violence as Israeli troops advance towards Gaza City after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7.

Protesters have staged a sit-in at Edinburgh Waverley. STV News

Edinburgh Waverley was disrupted on Saturday. STV News

Gaza’s health ministry has said about 8,500 Palestinian civilians have died during the conflict.

The Scottish Government announced it would be sending £500,000 in humanitarian funding to help the relief effort.

The cash will be given to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency flash appeal, which is working to support those being displaced by escalating violence in Gaza.

Scotrail have been contacted for comment.

The protest at Waverley comes after a failure in the electricity supply at the station just before 5pm on Thursday, as rush hour commuters were making their way home for the day.

The incident caused major disruption on services to and from Edinburgh including cross-border trains.

A similar protest was earlier held at Glasgow Central Station and activists held placards reading “Bombing hospitals is terrorism” and “it’s not conflict, it’s genocide” outside the BBC headquarters in Glasgow.

Bloodied “bodies” were held up in protest at the deaths of more than 3,000 Palestinian children killed in the past three weeks.

They were tagged with the BBC logo and accompanied by a sign that read “Every child’s future in Gaza lies in a body bag”.