Although the area remained sealed off, by midday on Sunday 5 July there was a perception among locals that the operation had been abandoned. According to Hanley and Millar, "the British knew that most of the 'more attractive' armaments had been spirited away 'before the cordon was fully effective'". The curfew was broken on Sunday, when 3,000 women and children from the nationalist Andersonstown area marched to the British lines with food and other groceries for the people there. The unprepared soldiers tried to hold back the crowd at first, but eventually allowed it to pass through.