Pro-Palestine protesters held a vigil on the Pentacrest Friday afternoon, honoring the lives lost in Gaza.
Roses, tea candles, and Palestinian flags were arrayed around a sign reading “In memory of the countless lives lost to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Roughly 40 pro-Palestine protesters gathered around the vigil, holding hand-made signs and waving Palestinian flags.
Penelope Wilmoth, a student at the University of Northern Iowa, held a sign listing the names of children who have been killed in Gaza.
“The death toll, and just seeing it rise every day, especially as people are killed in new places, it’s hard to watch,” Wilmoth said.
More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 96,700 injured as of Oct. 3, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. More than 14,000 children have reportedly been killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Roughly 1,200 were killed in Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israeli officials report about 8,700 people have been injured.
At least 10,000 more people are feared to be buried in rubble in Gaza, according to the United Nations, which means the death toll could be much higher than what is currently reported.
Wilmoth and many of the other protesters on the Pentacrest Friday have been calling for a ceasefire for a year now. Wilmoth said it’s difficult to think about how after a year things haven’t gotten better, but instead become harder.
“It feels hard from a year too, and I just wonder, where are we going to go?” Wilmoth said, becoming emotional and crying. “Is it going to get better? All we can do is hope and make our voices heard. But, it’s hard to sit here a year later and just pray that things get better.”
Farzana Rimi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa, said U.S. tax money should not be given to Israeli military forces, but instead should be invested in improving the United State’s healthcare and education systems.
“We are struggling. People are struggling — our people,” Rimi said. “On the other hand, these billions of dollars are going for bombing people, innocent people, children.”
The United States has sent a record of at least $17.9 million of military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released Monday, exactly one year after Hamas’ attacks on Israel.
An additional $4.86 billion has gone into increased U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Ed Flaherty, member of Veterans for Peace, has also been protesting for a ceasefire for over a year, and said to stop the war, the United States needs to stop sending arms deliveries to Israel.
Handing out flyers with the phone numbers of Iowa’s Congressional delegation, Flaherty urged attendees and walkers-by to call their representatives and push for a ceasefire.
“What is going on in Gaza is unjust — if it’s unjust, then how does one stop it? And what does the U.S. have to do with it?” he said. “What the U.S. has to do with it is that it is providing the arms for it. So we’ve been talking about the need for humanitarian aid and the need for a ceasefire for how many months? The missing ingredient in all of that has been that we will not stop sending arms to Israel.”