Protests over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip tied up commute traffic on two of the Bay Area’s major roadways for several hours Monday, resulting in dozens of arrests and countless frayed nerves for motorists caught in the chaos.
The traffic nightmare began before 8:30 a.m. when protesters successfully shut down both directions of U.S. Highway 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge, causing heavy traffic on both the San Francisco and Marin County sides of the bridge.
The CHP said in a social media post at 10:30 a.m. that they were starting to arrest protesters on the bridge, and motorists were advised to avoid Highway 101 and use alternate routes.
A CHP spokesperson said 28 people were arrested, and the bridge reopened by 12:30 p.m.
Meanwhile across the Bay, hundreds of protesters made their way onto Interstate 880 near downtown Oakland, where they sat and blocked traffic for hours with their arms chained together inside concrete-filled steel drums.
Two of the southbound lanes were reopened by 1 p.m., with all lanes cleared by 3 p.m., the CHP said. Authorities did not say how many arrests were made on I-880.
The actions were part of an “economic blockade” coordinated with similar protests around the world. Protesters are hoping to target “the global economy for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people,” organizers under the banner A15Action said.
An additional protest was held Monday afternoon at UN Plaza and Market and Hyde streets in San Francisco, by the group Code Pink. A15Action also planned to coordinate a protest Monday evening at the Tesla factory in Fremont.
Bay City News staff writers Kathleen Kirkwood and Kiley Russell contributed to this story.