SASKATOON -- More than 100 people showed up to the steps of city hall with Palestine flags and signs to support Palestinians amid the escalating violence between Israel and Hamas.
Attendees at the rally could be heard yelling “free, free Palestine” and “hey hey, hey hey, the occupation has to go.”
“It’s unfair what’s happening to the Palestinian people,” said Ali Kharsa.
Kharsa is a Syrian refugee who came over to Canada in 2016 and has cousins in near where the violence is.
”From a long time ago Israel’s have been taking their lands and killing their people,” Kharsa told CTV News.
Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which, in turn, has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes.
In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including a man killed by a rocket that hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, on Saturday.
For Omar Ash who was born in Ramallah, located 10 kilometres from Jerusalem, he wants his homeland to know he with them.
“I’m here to support the Palestinians back home. Make our voices heard what’s going on and to give it attention,” Ash told CTV News.
“We (Canadians) live in a democracy, we want the same rights to go for the Palestinians who’ve been suffering for too many years.”
The protest at city hall is one of several around the country.
Regina, Montreal, London and Ottawa were some of the other cities hosting rallies in support of Palestine.
“It’s your own people, your own family who have been struggling for too long.”
Rally goers were asked to obey COVID-19 public health orders by organizers and stay two meters away from people not part of their cohort.
