Bloodied pro-Palestine supporter's teeth knocked out on way home from London protest

• A man on his way home from the pro-Palestine march was brutally attacked by a group of men and afterwards had to have his teeth reinserted.

• Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people marched for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Charities have reported a rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism in the UK since the Hamas attack in Israel on 7 October.

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator has described how a group of men knocked his teeth out in a vicious attack as he returned from Saturday's London march – before a passing dentist helped put them back in his mouth.

Kadri Mahmoud, 33, was travelling back from the mass demo in central London on 11 November when he says he was confronted by a group of several men in Bethnal Green, east London.

Police have said they are treating the alleged attack as racially aggravated grievous bodily harm.

Video of the aftermath of the alleged attack, which shows Mahmoud's two front teeth being re-inserted into his bloodied mouth, subsequently went viral on Instagram.

Speaking to Yahoo News, Mahmoud said the group approached him as he walked back from Bethnal Green station because he was carrying the Palestinian flag.

He said their first question was what country the flag represented. He said once he told them, they claimed it was illegal.

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Mahmoud said he explained there had been a protest and that he was going home.

He told Yahoo News: "There's nothing controversial about a flag; it represents a call for peace, and I could tell my answer didn't really satisfy him."

The exchange then became heated after Mahmoud posed a hypothetical scenario about wearing an England flag and how that wouldn't pose any offence.

He said the men began swearing at him, backed him onto a wall, and had a phone in his face with the flash on to film him.

Mahmoud, who has owned the flag for years and did''t want to lose it, said he told the men: "If you think that a few white men are going to tell someone who's protesting for peace what to do, there is no chance you're going to get this flag from me."

He said the next thing he was aware of was everything going black, before coming to on the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth.

He was taken into a nearby cafe, before realising he needed to find his teeth, which had been knocked out during the fight.

He stepped outside with several other witnesses, including one man who had chased away his attackers, and eventually found them.

Mahmoud told Yahoo News that a passing dentist, who had also tried to de-escalate the incident, was able to save his teeth.

Mahmoud said: "Honestly, this is where humanity restored itself in a flash."

Mohammed Sufiyan, who has been a dentist for two years, said he tried to act as peacemaker in the fight as he saw no-one stepping in to help Mahmoud. He was then able to help reinsert the teeth in the police car.

"As I put his teeth in within 20 minutes it massively increases the chance of his teeth being saved," Sufiyan said.

Sufiyan went to the hospital with Mahmoud and police and spoke with a maxillofacial doctor, who put a splint in Mahmoud’s jaw.

Mahmoud is due to have a root canal procedure to fix his teeth back into his mouth.

The Met Police said in a statement to Yahoo News: "The incident is being treated as racially aggravated grievous bodily harm. Enquiries are ongoing, including gathering and analysing CCTV.

"No-one should be subjected to hate because of their faith or race; this is absolutely unacceptable. We are taking action and will be relentless in targeting those who commit hate crimes and threaten our communities."

Hate crimes on the rise?

The attack on Mahmoud follows a global trend of an increase in hate crimes after the Israel-Gaza conflict re-escalated in October. Charities have been assisting people who have become victims of Islamophobia and antisemitism.

There has been an increase in both hate crimes. The Community Service Trust, which monitors anti-semitic attacks, said that following the 7 October Hamas assault, in just 32 days they had recorded 1,124 incidents of antisemitism across the UK.

Tell Mama, a charity that measures anti-Muslim hate across Britain, said that there has been a "six-fold increase" when comparing the two weeks following the October attack to the same two weeks in 2022. The charity said it had received 291 reports of anti-Muslim hatred in London in the fortnight after 7 October.

The march in central London on 11 November was the subject of much controversy.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman was highly critical of what she branded a "hate march", calling for it to be banned.

She was accused of fuelling far-right violence after dozens of people opposing the pro-Palestine march were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police said 126 people were arrested during the Armistice Day protests – the majority of whom were counter-protesters.

So far, 11 people have been charged with offences including assault on an emergency worker, criminal damage, racially aggravated assault and possession of an offensive weapon.