Thousands of pro-Palestinian marchers gather in Seattle after communications cut off in Gaza

Following a night in which both power and internet service were largely cut off in the Gaza Strip, at least four thousand people, by a KUOW crowd calculation, marched through downtown Seattle on Saturday in support of Palestinians and to demand that elected officials call for an immediate ceasefire.

“[I’m here] to speak for the people who can’t speak right now,” said Layth, a protester who has extended family in Gaza. They did not want to provide their last name. “There's no communications in Gaza. No power or nothing. We're here to get their voices heard.”

Protests have been held every week since Oct. 7, when a surprise attack by Hamas, the terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip, killed 1,400 Israelis, including many civilians.

In response, the Israeli military has been bombing the Gaza Strip and has started a ground incursion that has killed at least 8,000 Palestinians, the majority of which are women and children, according to figures recently released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

The widespread destruction and rising death toll in the Gaza Strip has prompted a growing outcry from the international community and from activists and Palestinians in Seattle.

Several protesters referred to the Israeli military’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip as a genocide, echoing nearly 800 scholars who signed onto an Oct. 15 letter warning of the potential for genocide.

A red truck guided protesters down Pine Street from Westlake Park to a building that houses federal offices as activists led chants of “Free Palestine.”

A man wearing a keffiyeh – a black and white checkered scarf that represents Palestinian identity and solidarity -- read a statement over a loudspeaker.

“We bear witness to the 7, 000 lives taken from Gaza,” he said. “We bear witness to their names, to their lineages, to their family trees.”

Ahmad, a protester, said he was there for friends and family in Gaza. “They're all getting bombed by Israel,” Ahmad said.

On Friday, an Israeli military bombardment caused communication in Gaza to be cut off. The Israeli government had already cut off supplies of food, water and fuel two weeks ago.

Layth expressed skepticism of how the war is being covered in U.S. media. He said Palestinian voices have been sidelined. That the media was only now paying attention to a conflict that has been ongoing for 75 years, because of the Hamas attack.

“Just be fair, not on one side, just show the real world what's happening,” he said.

Nashua Mohamed attended the protest and said that half of her friends have family in Gaza, and that those friends have lost dozens of family members.

“This is not a faraway place,” Mohamed said. “This is not a far away problem.”

She said people of all religions and backgrounds are trapped in Gaza, including Americans, and that even if they wanted to leave, “they literally cannot.”