HONG KONG — Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong held one of the largest rallies of their campaign Saturday evening, a gesture of defiance following attacks on their encampments and a declaration by the territory’s leader that major roads they have occupied for the last week must be cleared by Monday morning.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the main protest site at Admiralty, outside the government headquarters, after the territory’s embattled leader, Leung Chun-ying, said that “all necessary actions” would be taken to ensure that government workers could go back to work next week. He did not specify what those actions would be, but police used tear gas in an attempt to break up protests a week ago, leading to a wave of larger demonstrations.

“We know that every time they assault us, we resist harder,” Alex Chow Yong Kang, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told the crowd. “And we know we’re on the right path, otherwise the government wouldn’t have been so afraid of us.”