Around 200 people, some with children, have held a demonstration in central London to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The rally took place in front of Westminster Abbey on Friday. It was organized by a group working to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people.

The demonstrators recreated the scene of Christ's Nativity with gray boxes simulating rubble in Gaza and handmade dolls wrapped in the traditional "keffiyeh" Palestinian cloth instead of the infant Jesus sleeping in a crib.

Participants sang carols with revised lyrics that referred to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Chanting slogans such as "Stop bombing Gaza," they then marched to the Foreign Ministry to protest the British government's refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire.

A woman carrying her two-year-old son said the children of Gaza are being bombed relentlessly and that as a mother she cannot stand to see what's happening.

A Palestinian woman who helped organize the rally said that Palestine, where Christ was born, is being bombed and people are being killed while people are preparing for Christmas.

She said the purpose of the protest was to remind British government officials that the killing in Gaza will not stop while they take their holiday break.