Pro-Palestine protesters shut NYC's Manhattan Bridge

Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters have shut down Manhattan Bridge on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year to demand a 'permanent ceasefire' in Gaza.

The New York protest was led by Jewish Voice for Peace, an activist group that describes itself as being the 'largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world' predominantly consisting of people from the faith.

It came as the fragile four-day pause in Israeli airstrikes which have so far killed an estimated 11,000 people is set to end Monday - and as the first US citizen was freed in prisoner swaps.  

Four-year-old Israeli-American dual national Abigail Mor Edan was released by the militant group - after her parents Roy Edan, 43, and Smadar Edan, 40, were among 1,200 people slaughtered in the October 7 attack.

She was one of 17 hostages freed on Sunday, including 14 Israelis, in the third exchange under a truce that the US hoped would be extended. Israel released 39 prisoners in return.  

The New York protest came on one of the busiest travel days of the year, between Thanksgiving and the Christmas period - and City officials warned drivers to avoid the area.   

Protesters began blocking the road at Canal Street in lower Manhattan around 2pm, many wearing shirts emblazoned with the words 'ceasefire now,' while some laid a banner on the sidewalk reading 'the whole world is watching' and 'let Gaza live.'

Organizers led chants of 'Palestinians have the right to live in freedom' and 'a pause is not enough, let Gaza live' through megaphones.

Many also wore keffiyehs - a monochrome patterned scarf that is a patriotic symbol of Palestinian identity - and waved Palestinian flags.

The same group has led several other ginormous pro-Palestine protests in the Big Apple recently, including the storming of Grand Central Station in late October and a Statue of Liberty demo in early November.  

Palestinian health officials in Gaza said that they have lost the ability to count the dead because of the collapse of parts of the enclave’s health system and the difficulty of retrieving bodies from areas overrun by Israeli tanks and troops.

The United Nations humanitarian office, which cites the Health Ministry death toll in its regular reports, still refers to 11,078 as the last verified death toll from the war.

It also comes after three Palestinian college students were shot while walking home from dinner Saturday night in Vermont - in what the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee alleges is a hate crime.

The victims of the Burlington, Vermont shooting have been identified as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed, all three are 20 years old.

According to the Burlington Police Department, the men were wearing keffiyeh scarves and speaking Arabic when an unidentified white gunman approached them.

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