The local Palestinian community organized an emergency protest and sit-in at the Alberta legislature Wednesday evening.
It was planned quickly — in 48 hours — to denounce the attacks in Gaza, particularly an explosion at a hospital.
Demonstrators could be heard chanting: “Free Palestine.”
The Canadian Palestine Cultural Association says Edmontonians have lost dozens of family members in the conflict in the Middle East so far. The group is calling for an end to blocking humanitarian aid in the Gaza region, along with ending the destruction of residential buildings.
“The local community again, as I said, they’re really, really being affected,” said Mousa Qasqas, vice-president of the Canada Palestine Cultural Association, at the event at the legislature.
“There’s a Facebook group of 11,000 Muslim mothers and they said: ‘I don’t know if I want to send my kids to school because of the atmosphere and because of these attacks.'”
“I personally got some really bad voice messages sent to me. I was cut off in traffic the other day and I filmed it,” he said.
“These attacks are happening — they’ve really spiked — and our community is really scared for what’s happening.”
This is the latest in a series of demonstrations in Edmonton.
The Edmonton Police Service estimates there were about 14 over the weekend.
Worldwide demonstrations by both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been taking place for nearly two weeks, after hundreds of Hamas militants launched a multi-pronged attack, with rocket fire and a rampage across the border from Gaza that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and saw some 200 others, including children, taken hostage, according to the Israeli government.
In the days since, Israel has retaliated with its own airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, and it has cut off essential supplies and power to the territory in what its officials call a total siege.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has said that more than 2,800 Palestinians have been killed, and at least 500 more died in a blast at a hospital on Wednesday. Hamas said Israel was responsible for the blast, while Israel said it was caused by a misfired missile that originated in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip, a narrow piece of land on Israel’s western border that is roughly the size as Montreal, has been controlled since 2007 by Hamas, a group the Canadian government has labelled as a terrorist organization since 2002.
Israel and Egypt both imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took over control, limiting movement of goods and people in and out of the territory, which is home to about two million people.
The Canadian government has condemned the Hamas actions as “a terrorist attack” and backs Israel’s right to defend itself, but Ottawa has also been clear in recent days that it expects international law to be respected in Gaza.
It has called for Israel, Egypt and others to allow aid into Gaza, where residents have been cut off from supplies and power for more than a week.
With files from Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press and Aaron D’Andrea, Global News
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