Photo: Chaiel Schaffel (WBZ)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Hundreds rallied in Cambridge Sunday to mark 100 days since Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel and took more than 200 people hostage.
Based at the Harvard Chabad House, the massive rally wound down the bank of the Charles River to the John W. Weeks Bridge, then looped back across the river via the Anderson Memorial Bridge.
Demonstrators waved Israeli flags, held signs with messages like "Free the hostages now" and "Let my people go," and chanted "Bring them home."
According to Israeli officials, around 1,200 people were killed and some 240 people captured in the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
A temporary ceasefire in November saw the release of over 100 hostages, but Israeli military officials say 136 people remain captive in Gaza.
"We don’t want people to forget why this war is happening in the first place," said Maya, a student at Brandeis University. "We are here to represent these people that are suffering and we want this war to end as soon as it possibly can."
1 of 3 Photo: Chaiel Schaffel (WBZ)
2 of 3 Photo: Chaiel Schaffel (WBZ)
3 of 3 Photo: Chaiel Schaffel (WBZ)
"I can’t understand how people can be capable of what Hamas did," said Mike Eggert, whose neighbor is the uncle of one of the hostages. "I just don’t understand how you can do these types of unthinkable things."
One of the speakers at Sunday's rally was Tamar Davis Galper. Her cousin, 22-year-old Omer Neutra, is still being held in Gaza.
"More than three months and his family has still heard nothing about his condition," Galper said. "We are acting and working with the full belief that he is alive. To his Hamas captors, [Omer's parents] Orna and Ronen ask that they treat him and the other hostages humanely."
WBZ’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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