Demonstrators will take to the streets of London today in a massive protest as fighting continues in Gaza.

Demonstrators will take to the streets of London today in a massive protest as fighting continues in Gaza.

Organisers predict more than 100,000 people will join an anti-Israel march through the centre of the capital.

Celebrities including former Roxy Music member Brian Eno and Truly Madly Deeply star Juliet Stevenson are expected to join in the procession from Hyde Park to the Israeli embassy in Kensington.

The march will include rallies at the start and end addressed by activists including Eno, Stevenson, former London mayor Ken Livingstone and Cherie Blair's half-sister Lauren Booth.

Organisers - including Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - said they hoped there would be no repeat of the ugly clashes with police that marred a demonstration in London last Saturday.

Lindsey German, Stop the War's convenor, said the march would be a passionate, but peaceful protest.

She added: "We are calling for an end to the massacre and for Israel to get out of Gaza and Palestine.

"We want the British government to take a much stronger position.

"There would have been outrage from governments around the world if this had happened anywhere else - the condemnation has been at best half-hearted."

On Sunday morning, the Board of Deputies of British Jews will also hold rallies in London's Trafalgar Square and Albert Square in Manchester calling for Middle East peace.

A statement from the group said the peace march "will bring together communities from all over the country who will express their solidarity with Israel and their desire for a peaceful and sustainable resolution to the conflict."

Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, Head of the Movement for Reform Judaism, added: "Everyone should support Israel's determination to weaken the hold of the terrorists. It is only when terror and blackmail are successfully opposed that the moderate majority can feel safe to make peace."

Air strikes by Israel's military hit more than 30 targets in Gaza on Friday, killing at least one child, while Hamas launched a barrage of rocket attacks on two cities in the Jewish state.

Israel's airstrikes against the tiny strip of land in the Palestinian territories have come in the wake of a three-year campaign which has seen Hamas shell Israeli towns with an estimated 6,000 rockets.

The fresh waves of violence on Friday came as the UN called for an independent war crimes investigation into reports that Israeli soldiers shelled a house that they knew contained more than 100 Palestinians.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said: "According to several testimonies, on January 4 Israeli foot soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single residence house in Zeitoun, half of whom were children, warning them to stay indoors.

"Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30."

Navi Pillay, the UN's High Commissioner for human rights, told the BBC the incident appeared to have "all the elements of war crimes".

Aid agencies warned that medical facilities in Gaza were at breaking point and that babies were dying because parents were unable to take their children to hospital.

Leaders of all the UK's major faiths made a joint plea yesterday for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted access to emergency aid in Gaza.

Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy for the UN, US, EU and Russia, also said he had hoped a ceasefire could have been achieved by this time.

"We're going to do what we can, we will see whether it bears fruit or not," he told BBC2's Newsnight.

"I'd hoped very much that we would have have got a ceasefire by now. It's not been possible.

"I think there are still real issues about what can be done about the smuggling of the arms into Gaza and then the opening of the crossings so there can be proper humanitarian help and Gaza can be reopened to the outside world on the other side of it.

"At the moment it seems to not be in a position where we are going to get the ceasefire that we want but we are going to carry on working for it, we've got no option."