‘We will not stop! We will not rest!’ New Yorkers Gather on the One-Year Anniversary of the Oct. 7 Attacks.

Within Our Lifetime organizer Nerdeen Kiswani, and others spread out the flag of Palestine.

Thousands gathered in Manhattan to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, paying tribute to those lost while protesting what they described as a year of violence and genocide

The demonstration, called for and organized by Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinianand anti-Zionist activist group, began in Lower Manhattan and drew a few hundred people. They assembled around a large Palestinian flag laid out on the street. Chants of “Israel bombs, U.S.A. pays, how many kids did you kill today?” echoed outside the New York Stock Exchange. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 42,000 victims, many of whom are children.

The crowd marched through the Financial District, ignoring the Pace University chapter of Students Supporting Israel, who were situated on the outskirts of the broader space. Students Support Israel, a pro-Israel is an international campus organization. One of the students explained that the group was there not to antagonize or necessarily engage with the broader protest, but to hold space for their own remembrance of the reported 251 people taken hostage by Hamas.

Pace University students apart of Students Supporting Israel.

Many other counter-protesters, who were uninvolved with Students Supporting Israel, were more confrontational. A small group of Zionists yelled out, “Not enough!” in response to the frequent chant of “How many kids did you kill today?”.

Later on in the march, at Union Square Park, there were a couple of physical confrontations, leaving one Israel supporter bleeding from the nose and being, escorted away by the police officers. A few of the pro-Palestine participants who witnessed the altercation alleged that the lone Israel supporter had instigated the incident by assaulting a woman in the crowd.

The Police Department had a sizable presence throughout the day, most notably with their Strategic Response Group, the notoriously violent unit of the NYPD.

The NYPD and the orderly crowd clashed at the New York Public Library in Midtown, Manhattan. Police officers charged in to remove two elderly protesters, who were sitting in folding chairs in the roadway, leading to a contained clash between police and protesters. Despite these small outbursts of violence, the crowd continued to march across Manhattan, before finally disbanding at Madison Square Park.

Protesters check in on a distraught activist, after being confronted by NYPD.

Among the crowd were several members of Neturei Karta International, an anti-Zionist Jewish group. Rabbi Dovid Feldman, a prominent member of Neturei Karta, emphasized the growing need for not only a ceasefire, but an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

“We are witnessing today an endless cycle of bloodshed where everyone suffers,” said Feldman. “This needs to stop for the sake of everyone involved, not only for the Palestinians, but for the Jews as well.”