SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 21, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Laela Omar was among the hundreds of people who gathered at the Utah Capitol on Saturday afternoon to show support for Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Attending such rallies is something Omar has been doing most of her life, she says, as her father is Palestinian.
“We’ve been coming to protests since I were really little, but I’ve just recently kind of gotten more invested,” she told Gephardt Daily. “My dad was just in Palestine … visiting his family, and he was on one of the last fights out to leave Palestine.”
Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on Oct. 7, which coincided with a major Jewish holiday. The attack, which killed hundreds of civilians, stunned Israel and caught its vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard.
Israel immediately launched airstrikes on Gaza, destroying entire neighborhoods and killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the days that have followed. The war has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. At least 199 people, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.
“It really felt like like a wake-up call, like, having him be there,” Omar said of her father. “And it was just like so real.
“When it first happened, I felt a lot of shame and confusion. And then the more I learned about it, it was like more anger and, you know, just a lot of emotions.”
Saturday’s rally was organized in part by the Palestinian Solidarity Association of Utah. The goal was to peacefully rally in support of Palestine, the group stated on social media.
Supporters of Palestinians under siege by Israel in their Gaza Strip enclave took to the streets around the world Friday, with many flying the Palestinian flag and calling for a cease-fire in the conflict, according to UPI.
The protests came as Israel prepared for a ground assault against Gaza’s rulers, the Islamist militant group Hamas, in retaliation for the deaths 1,400 Israelis in a deadly and coordinated strike on Oct. 7.
Palestinian health officials said Saturday 4,385 people in Gaza have died in the resulting Israeli bombardment campaign, including 1,756 children and 967 women, UPI reported.
