Hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against Israel's treatment of Lebanon and Palestine.

Demonstrators carrying placards, banners and Palestinian flags walked from Hove's Palmeira Square to Brighton's Palace Pier to ask the UK to be tougher on Israel.

The march on Saturday was organised by Sussex Action For Peace and attended by organisations including the Green Party and the Brighton and Hove Socialist Party.

Protesters, overseen by police officers from Sussex and Surrey, travelled along the seafront chanting "Free Palestine" and "Justice for Lebanon".

Organiser Glenn Williams, of Park Crescent Road, Brighton, said: "We are here to protest at the carnage that has been going on in Lebanon and Gaza.

"There may be a ceasefire but it is completely bogus and has no strength behind it at all, which is beginning to bring even more problems.

"We feel the ceasefire was definitely weighted in Israel's terms, of course supported by the United States and the UK. It isn't sustainable."

Mumin Elshahri, 36, a Palestinian computer engineer who has been in the UK for 16 years and now lives in Lancing, said: "The situation in Palestine is very bad."

Mark Record, 37, of Barton Road, Chichester, joined Sussex Action For Peace because of the situation in Lebanon. He said that by failing to take action the UK had been complicit in the attacks.

He said: "I believe it was an illegal war. Even though there is a ceasefire now, there still is an injustice that Israel have been allowed to wreak the destruction they have.

"I'd like to see the Government not encouraging or supporting war in the Middle East or waging war on the people they call the axis of evil'.

"We want diplomacy, not bombs."

Carlos Ruano, 47, a primary school teacher from Spain who attended the protest with his wife and son while on holiday in Brighton, said: "We must say we don't want this to happen again. The United States don't want to stop. They want to invade Iran and Syria. I want to say stop, don't begin an international war."

Protesters said they were surprised to see so many police for a relatively small demonstration. But police said they had no way of predicting how many people would show up and it might have been more than 1,000.

There was also a small contingent of Christians demonstrating in defence of Israel. They carried a banner saying "Christians supporting the Jewish People in Israel".

Jane Dennett, 82, from Shoreham, of the Prayer For Israel group and the Immanuel Family Church in Stanford Avenue, Brighton, said: "We are not making a political statement. We are defending Israel's right to exist. The others are Muslims and want to destroy the state of Israel."

Fellow Prayer For Israel member Christina Summers, 44, an English teacher of Dyke Road, Brighton, said: "Israel is a democratic country like us.

"We really came today to say there are people in Brighton who don't agree. I have so many Jewish friends who are frightened to come to this. We said we would come for them."