‘Shake the city up': Large pro-Palestinian rally marches through Center City blocking traffic

A very large crowd of people blocked the streets in Center City Philadelphia for "an emergency" pro-Palestinian rally Tuesday night.

The rally was held to raise awareness for -- what protestors called -- the genocide in Gaza and that American tax dollars shouldn't be going toward the war, Nada Abuasi, an organizer with the Philadelphia Palestine Coalition, said

Abuasi estimated that thousands of people came out.

"We were really floored by the amount of people that showed up. I think 8,000 people out on the streets to the point where you can't even see the tail end of the crowd," she said.

After 6 p.m. the large crowd could be seen marching through the streets in areas like South Broad Street and Rittenhouse Square.

SkyForce10 was over the scene and some in the crowd could be seen holding Palestinian flags, signs that say, "Free Rafah," "stop U.S. funding of Israeli apartheid," "Palestinian genocide" and more.

At one point during the evening, protestors stopped in Rittenhouse Square at the intersection of 18th and Rittenhouse Square and sang songs while they chanted slogans, like, "free Palestine".

One of the speakers said they were a member of the Black Alliance for Peace.

"We've been organizing and mobilizing in the Philadelphia community to raise awareness, to shed some light on what is going on in Gaza," Abuasi said.

She also mentioned this is just one of many events that the Palestine Coalition has organized.

"We're really just asking people to continuously come out in numbers, shake the city up, to disrupt the city, to make sure that people are not getting any peace until justice is served," Abuasi said.

The crowd peacefully dispersed before 10 p.m.

This is a developing news story. Check back for details.