Hamas attack: Israeli, Palestinian backers hold rallies across US

Groups supporting Israelis and Palestinians held competing rallies in several U.S. cities on Sunday, a day after a conflict erupted when Hamas militants crossed into Israel.

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In New York City, tensions boiled over between opposing demonstrators near the United Nations, WABC-TV reported. Supporters of Israel and Palestinians had gathered for rallies in Times Square before marching east to the U.N. compound, according to the television station.

In South Florida, supporters of both groups demonstrated in downtown Fort Lauderdale, WFOR-TV reported. Tensions were heightened at one point when both groups congregated downtown but later settled down, authorities said.

Reut Tsizer, 36, said her older brother and his family live in Israel, the Miami Herald reported.

“They are under attack,” Tsizer told the newspaper. “They can’t go outside. I don’t have any more tears.”

Hundreds of Palestinians and supporters staged a demonstration in downtown Chicago on Sunday, according to WLS-TV.

“We’re out here again to raise our voice, to make a very clear message: We stand with our people back in Palestine, that we’re behind them 100%,” Muhammad Sankari, with the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, told the television station.

Groups also demonstrated in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I feel lucky my wife’s family, who live right out of Jerusalem, are safe so far, but I know that’s not the case for everybody,” Jewish Federation of Greater Raleigh CEO Phil Broadsky told WTVD. “Even though this conflict is happening in Israel, it affects all of us.”

Rania Masri, who organized the Free Palestine Rally in the city on Sunday, called the Hamas attack a case of liberation and not terrorism.

“In no way can we say what is happening now is unprovoked. Quite the consequence...It’s a direct response to occupation and apartheid,” Masri told the television station. “What we’ve had happen for 75 years is Palestinians have been dispossessed, their homes have been broken and destroyed, their lands have been stolen.”

In Washington, D.C., religious leaders in synagogues and churches prayed for peace, The Washington Post reported.

“It’s terrifying. It’s upsetting,” Linda Hirsch, a retired social worker from Bethesda, Maryland, whose husband was a Holocaust survivor, told the newspaper. “I worry for a place that I love dearly.”

A few hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in front of the White House and called for the end of U.S. aid to Israel, according to the Post.

More than 75 people demonstrated at the Israeli consulate in Atlanta on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. They chanted slogans supporting Hamas and called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

“Yesterday was inevitable,” Anne Belocura, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told the news organization. She added that Israel’s policies “precipitated an inevitable counteroffensive by Palestinian resistance forces.”

Talia Segal, a student at Georgia Tech carried an Israeli flag to the protest, according to the AP.

“Terrorism is never justified. Their target was Israeli civilians,” Segal, who is Jewish and said she fears for her family in Israel, told the news organization.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a Jewish community gathering to support Israel at a San Francisco synagogue, the AP reported.

A vigil was planned in Los Angeles on Sunday night, KCAL-TV reported.

The Vigil for Israel was being co-sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and The Board of Rabbis of Southern California, according to the television station.

“Together we will pray, sing for, and honor the memory of the ... innocent Israelis who have tragically been murdered and pray for peace and the safe return of those who have been kidnapped by Hamas terrorists,” organizers said in a statement.

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