New York/IBNS: Anti-Israel protesters Monday vandalized a World War I memorial in New York's Central Park and burned an American flag after a mob of more than 1,000 marchers was stopped by cops from reaching the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is hosting the star-studded Met Gala event.

At least one America-hating vandal torched Old Glory at the site of the 107th Infantry Memorial, the base of which was defaced with graffiti reading 'Gaza' in large black letters, according to the New York Post.

The protesters also plastered the statue’s bronze soldiers with stickers of the Palestinian flag that read 'Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.'

Some of them even climbed atop the infantrymen and waved Palestinian flags or draped them over the figures.

The protests even rocked the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 67th with no cops in sight as large police enforcement was handling the situation about 15 blocks north at the Met to ensure one of the biggest nights in fashion wasn’t crashed by any anti-Israel protesters.

Another Central Park monument, the Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman bronze statue in Grand Army Plaza, was also vandalized Monday night.

'Free Gaza' was graffitied in red letters on the base of the memorial and a Palestinian flag was affixed to its front.

Earlier in the evening, about two dozen anti-Israel protesters were arrested near Madison Ave and East 83rd Street as a sea of demonstrators marched from Hunter College toward the Met, according to reports.

The crowd, part of a 'Day of Rage' protest organized by the Palestinian activist group Within Our Lifetime, had trekked north on Fifth Avenue, blocking traffic along the way, before cops stopped them at the East 79th Street Transverse in Central Park. 

'Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,' the group chanted as they waved Palestinian flags and wore keffiyeh face coverings. 

Earlier several US universities have been witnessing pro-Palestinian protests and hundreds of arrestes over the same.