Los Angeles, United States - October 07, 2024

10/07/2024 04:00 pm (GMT-0700) | WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES – Today, on the somber anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters expressed their frustrations regarding the ongoing conflict that has killed so many.

Israel's attack on Gaza targeting Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 surprise attack on a festival in the Negev Desert killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, according to sources.

Over this past year, the conflict has escalated, with many hostages who were taken during the Hamas attack still held captive. NBC News reported that at least 97 kidnapped people are still in Gaza. "Three of the seven American citizens are believed to be dead," according to NBC.

At least 251 people were initially kidnapped and taken into Gaza, with 105 freed during a temporary cease-fire in November. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have rescued at least eight, reported NBC.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, displacing nearly all the strip's 2.2. million people reported CNN.

In recognition of the year-old conflict, many demonstrators nationwide chose university campuses for their protests. So far, many have been peaceful, while clashes on some campuses have been reported.

Late Monday afternoon, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters took to the UCLA campus in Westwood. As some protesters made speeches, an estimated crowd of 500 waved Palestinian and Israeli flags and carried placards.

The crowd marched in a U-shape formation and ended at Murphy Hall, where contracted security guards met the protesters.

(Sound on tape with protester making a speech to a crowd. Audio filtered and amplified channel 1).

Protester Transcript:

"The entire generation born and raised under military occupation, under checkpoints, under house demolition, under forced eviction, and the ever-present threat of violence. And in 1982, the massacre of Ranchedina, thousands of Palestinian refugees, men, women, and children slaughtered in cold blood, their only crime being Palestinian.

We remember 2002 in Janin, where Zionist tanks flattened refugee camps, burying people alive under the rubble. And yet even that wasn't the end. In 2008 to 2009, 2014, 2021, and now again in 2023 and 2024, Gaza has been relentlessly bombed, a prison with no escape.

Over the years, thousands have been killed, including countless children. Each attacked worse than the last. And every time, after the bombs stopped falling, the siege tightened,

leaving Gaza with no electricity, no clean water, no medical supplies, no future. Each massacre is a part of a broader plan of calculated systematic attempts to destroy the spirit of the Palestinian people."

More information to follow.