Washington D.C. was on high alert on Wednesday, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress scheduled to begin at 4 PM local time (9 PM in Israel.) Local police closed off streets leading to the capital from the early morning hours and roadblocks were set up in the area.
Police officers from nearby jurisdictions were brought into the city to bolster the deployment of DCPD in case protests of the prime minister, get out of hand.
Hundreds protested outside Netanyahu's hotel on Tuesday night calling for his arrest. In the morning, protesters called out to the prime minister that he was a criminal of war.
Protests are also planned for the families of hostages who arrived in the U.S. to call on Netanyahu to finalize a deal that would free their loved ones.
Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday and will travel to Florida on Friday for a meeting with former president Donald Trump.
At least 80 members of the House and six senators, all Democrats, are expected to remain out of the chamber during Netanyahu's speech. Some have said explicitly that they intend to boycott the prime minister.
Vice President Kamala Harris would also be absent from the speech and would not preside over the joint session, citing scheduling problems.