Boston's Mass. Ave. Bridge was forced to shut down temporarily on Saturday as hundreds gathered to march in support of Gaza, causing significant traffic disruptions, police reported.

According to NBC10 Boston, the demonstrators converged on the bridge which connects Boston and Cambridge over the Charles River. The protest not only affected the Mass. Ave. Bridge but also briefly closed the Longfellow Bridge, per officials from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. While no arrests had been made at the time of NBC10 Boston’s observation, law enforcement, including Massachusetts State Police and the local police of Boston and Cambridge, monitored the situation closely and detoured traffic at both ends of the bridge.

The MIT Police Department issued an advisory, posted on their official Twitter account, advising motorists to seek alternate routes due to the advancing protest. "A protest traveling on Mass Ave towards the MIT campus is causing traffic disruptions. Use alternate routes," the department warned, as per a tweet obtained by The Boston Globe.

The State Department of Transportation had alerted the public through social media about the closure just before 6:45 p.m. on Saturday. The demonstrators, who had started their march from Newbury Street in Boston, moved towards the bridge around 6 p.m. State Police, along with other local law enforcement, were tasked with directing traffic as the bridge shut down. The bridge was eventually reopened to traffic around 7:25 p.m., after the crowd dispersed, State Police said. The protest reflected ongoing tensions and calls for solidarity with the Palestinian territories.