Today (October 9), two Youth Demand activists pasted a photo of a Gazan mother and child over a Picasso painting at the National Gallery to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the new UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.

Shortly before midday, the pair plastered the moving photograph over the glass covering Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece ‘Motherhood (La Maternité)’, before pouring red paint onto the gallery floor.

Videos posted on social media show security roughly handling one of the protestors and pressing him against a wall.

“The UK government is complicit in genocide [...] children are dying in Gaza, they are being operated on without anaesthetic, women are giving birth without any medical attention. Our government is complicit,” the activist can be heard saying in the video.

“87 per cent of the public support an arms embargo in Israel, yet the government still continues to provide arms [to Israel]. The youth of this country should take back democracy.”

According to Al Jazeera, Israel’s continued assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, 16,456 of them children.

The activist went on to urge young people to join the Youth Demand movement.