NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Events held over the weekend and Monday in Western New York remembered the lives lost in the Israel-Hamas conflict on its one-year anniversary and called for the hostages to be released.
State and county leaders, as well as pastors and rabbis, spoke at a remembrance event Monday night at city hall in North Tonawanda, which was led by Father Arthur Ward Jr. of St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church.
WIVB News 4 heard from various leaders in the Jewish Community Monday. Jewish Voice for Peace in Buffalo said it has been a year of despair and sadness since Hamas launched the attack against Israel.
Leaders on both sides of the conflict have repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Jewish Voice for Peace said they’re appalled at the amount of financial support to the U.S. has given to Israel to fund this war.
“We’re horrified to be here a year later and see the war widening,” said Derek Seidman of Jewish Voice for Peace in Buffalo. “Right now, we feel at the core of this conflict is the Israeli dispossession and occupation of millions of Palestinians, who are living under an apartheid system.”