NEW YORK CITY — Nearly 100 protesters were arrested during a demonstration outside the Manhattan offices of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, calling on the two New York lawmakers to block the sale of thousands of U.S. bombs to Israel. The protest was organized and led by the antiwar group Jewish Voice for Peace and drew a crowd numbering in the hundreds.

The demonstrators initially attempted to stage a sit-in inside the building that houses the offices of both Schumer and Gillibrand. Security blocked the crowd from entering. After being turned away, the protesters moved outside onto the street, where they stopped traffic and chanted "fund people, not bombs."

The protesters who were arrested were loaded onto three buses. Among the 90 people taken into custody were whistleblower Chelsea Manning, actress Hari Nef, and New York City Council Member Alexa Avilés, according to a Jewish Voice for Peace spokesperson.

The demonstration centered on a set of resolutions introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders that could block the sale of more than $600 million in bombs to Israel. Similar measures previously introduced by Sanders have failed. The most recent effort this past summer drew support from more than half of Senate Democrats, but both Schumer and Gillibrand did not support that measure.

"This is the moment when Schumer and Gillibrand must listen to their constituents," Jewish Voice for Peace communications director Sonya Meyerson-Knox said. "The majority of Americans and New Yorkers want a resolution to what the Israeli government is doing," she added. Neither Schumer nor Gillibrand issued a public statement in response to the demonstration or the pending Sanders resolutions.