Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators gather in Washington Square Park
NEW YORK -- As the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, rallies in the Tri-State Area continue.
The NYPD drew a line between dueling rallies in Washington Square Park on Tuesday.
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"We weren't planning on saying anything about Palestine. We wanted to call out the terrorist organization Hamas that did this," pro-Israeli demonstrator Aitan Rosner said.
The pro-Israel rally was organized by the Students Supporting Israel group from New York University.
"For an organization of a resistance movement and a movement of freedom fighters to legitimize and bolster their organization and their movement by commending the deaths and the attack on Jewish people and of innocence lives lost, an act of terror ... is just horrifying," pro-Israeli demonstrator Bella Ingber said. "My loved one was being bombarded by rockets under attack, afraid to walk on the street. No one should have to live that way."
"Hamas opened a war against Israel. I don't think there is any country in the world that would accept such atrocities against their civilians," pro-Israel demonstrator Lior Behar said.
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Directly in front of them, those in support of the Palestinian people are calling attention to what they believe to be genocide happening in Gaza right now.
"It can barely be called a war. One side doesn't have an army," a pro-Palestinian demonstrator said.
"These are textbook war crimes. Mass movement of people, cutting off of electricity, food, water, medical care, bombing of hospitals," pro-Palestinian demonstrator Vincent Flores said.
"I have friends in Gaza whose families' have been struck, and I'm pretty horrified by the rise in Islamophobic language and the vilification. I'm from Egypt. My family and everyone I know is pretty horrified by what's happening," a pro-Palestinian demonstrator said.
"We're not supporting violence. We're here to talk about the history of the Palestinian people, that they've been suffering for 75 years and that the incidents are not happening within a vacuum," another pro-Palestinian demonstrator said.
Although tensions were high, these were peaceful demonstrations.
One thing both sides have in common -- praying for their people and an end to the atrocities happening around them.
