Lisbon, Oct. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The pro-Palestinian demonstrators who gathered outside the Lisbon Design Museum (Mude) and the Israeli embassy in Lisbon dispersed, with no clashes or arrests reported, the PSP told Lusa.
A spokeswoman for the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) said "there are currently no demonstrators outside MUDE or near the Israeli embassy".
On Thursday, more than a thousand demonstrators took part in a protest in Lisbon to demand the release of Portuguese citizens detained by Israel on boats carrying humanitarian aid from the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The protest, organised by the Palestine solidarity movement and which began in front of the Israeli Embassy, was attended by adults, young people and children displaying the Palestinian flag and the symbolic Palestinian Keffiyeh scarf.
On Thursday night, more than a hundred people moved the protest to Mude, where a debate between the Lisbon mayoral candidates was taking place, forcing Rua Augusta to be cut off in both directions.
The demonstrators called for sanctions against Israel and the resignation of the current mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas.
At around 00:20 on Friday, protesters blocked the car of the Socialist Party's candidate for Lisbon City Council, Alexandra Leitão, who was forced to return to Mude.
The socialist dismissed the incident in statements to RTP. The station broadcast images from inside the museum, where the candidates were talking in small groups.
The spokeswoman for Lisbon's PSP told Lusa that "there wasn't necessarily a blockade" on the way out of the debate.
The police said that each of the candidates left the building according to the conditions, and by applying security measures, the same source added.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, with around 50 boats, which was heading to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid, detaining the participants, including four Portuguese citizens: Left Bloc leader Mariana Mortágua, actress Sofia Aparício, and activists Miguel Duarte and Diogo Chaves.
The prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said on Thursday that he hoped the Portuguese citizens would be able to return to the country "without any incident", considering that the message of the humanitarian flotilla had been conveyed.
Also arrested were 30 Spaniards, 22 Italians, 21 Turks, 12 Malaysians, 11 Tunisians, 15 Brazilians, and 10 French citizens, as well as individuals from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and Colombia.
The organisers denounced the lack of information on the whereabouts of 443 participants in the humanitarian mission.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
