Israel’s Renewed Assault on Gaza Draws Hundreds Into Streets of San Francisco

Several hundred people gathered Tuesday evening in front of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco to protest Israel’s renewed attack on Gaza after nearly two months of ceasefire.

They drummed, waved Palestinian flags and raised signs that read “Stop arming Israel” and “Hands off the Middle East.”

“We need a ceasefire immediately,” Palestinian protester Suzanne Ali said, “and we also need an arms embargo to really make the ceasefire happen because the U.S. has no business giving Israel billions of dollars to support the slaughtering and massacres of our people.”

Israel launched its air assault early Tuesday, killing over 400 people — many of them children — and injuring over 500 more, according to Gaza health officials.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Israel consulted the Trump administration before launching the attacks. President Trump has proposed clearing Palestinians out of Gaza to create the “Riviera of the Middle East” and approved $12 billion in arms sales to Israel since taking office.

Several protesters held signs calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested by federal authorities and has been held in a Louisiana immigration detention center for over a week. As a student, Khalil had organized pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

Max Flynt, a student at San Francisco State University, attended Tuesday’s protest. He said he’s not intimidated by Trump’s warning that more arrests will come.

“They know that public opinion about Israel and the genocide they’re committing on the Palestinian people has become so unpopular,” Flint said, “and I think that’s why they’re cracking down. And the more they push us down, the more they repress us, the stronger our movement is going to get.”

Tuesday’s airstrikes marked the breakdown of a complicated ceasefire agreement. Phase 1 of the ceasefire, which began Jan. 19, saw an exchange of almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees for 33 of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Phase 2 would have included the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza in exchange for the remaining hostages — but it never began. Israel demanded the release of additional hostages before negotiations could start, and Hamas refused to free them until end-of-war talks commenced.

Since early March, Israel has blocked deliveries of food, medicine and electricity to Gaza.

Rami Abdelkarim, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement who helped organize Tuesday’s protest, pointed out that the blockade and the airstrikes come during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“Israel proclaims that its starvation of children is their religious right,” Abdelkarim said, “but we know that what’s happening right now is the absolute antithesis of spirituality, of respect for life, of respect for people.”

Protests against the renewed attacks also took place in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities, as well as in Tel Aviv.