A group breaks through a fence as thousands take part in anti-war protests in Gaza

Thousands of protesters took to the streets for a largely peaceful demonstration near the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on its opening day, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US support for Israel.

But several protesters were arrested when dozens of them broke through a security barrier around the event venue in Chicago.

Turnout appears to have been far lower than the tens of thousands of people organizers had hoped for and the 15,000 they had announced.

The protest highlighted divisions over one of the most contentious issues on the left in American politics: U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

At one point during Monday’s protest, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators tore down a fence around the convention’s security perimeter and rushed through.

Chicago police said the protesters did not breach the internal security fence and the situation was quickly brought under control. At least four people were arrested.

Many protesters against the Gaza war said they saw little difference between Mr. Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, who formally accepts the Democratic nomination for the White House this week after the president dropped out of the race last month and endorsed her.

“The Democratic Party may present a new face, but its support for Israeli repression remains unchanged,” said Omar Younes, co-founder of Jisoor, a Palestinian youth organization in Chicago.

Another protester, Tallis George Munro, said he would definitely vote for Ms Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, but did not want to give them a “free pass” to support Israel’s war in Gaza.

Mr. Munro, of Cleveland, Ohio, said he was more concerned about what he described as a “bigger threat”: the policies of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“We’re close to white Christian nationalism with Trump,” he said. “That’s the biggest problem in this country right now.”

Other protesters told the BBC they would vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, or not vote at all.

Rally attendees also heard from independent presidential candidate Cornel West, a philosophy professor and left-wing activist.

“This is not about Machiavellian politics or utilitarian calculation about an election,” he told the crowd. “This is about morality.”

After months of legal wrangling over the route, protesters marched along a 1.1-mile path around the DNC site, chanting slogans such as “No justice, no peace, America out of the Middle East” and “Kamala Harris is a police officer, all this violence must stop” — a reference to the vice president’s career as a prosecutor and California attorney general.

The protesters also chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The slogan refers to the region between the Jordan River, which borders the occupied West Bank and Israel to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Observers of anti-Semitism say it calls for the destruction of Israel, but pro-Palestinian groups deny that the slogan is hateful.

Earlier in the day, a small contingent of pro-Israel counter-protesters gathered briefly outside Union Park, where the pro-Palestinian march began and ended.

The march drew people from neighboring states and beyond. Karyna Lemus participated as a member of the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition.

She said she has been involved in the Palestinian rights movement for decades.

“I hope they hear us inside,” she said of the DNC delegates.

Protests will continue for the rest of the week during the convention.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.