ATLANTA — Dozens of people gathered in Midtown Saturday afternoon for a Pro-Palestine protest.
They held up signs and banners that read “Free Palestine” in front of the Consulate General of Israel on Spring Street.
“A ceasefire was never going to be the end,” said Monica Johnson with the Party for Socialism and Liberation who organized the rally. “We have to keep fighting until the end of the occupation.”
War between Hamas and Israel sparked after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, abducting 251 Israelis.
A ceasefire deal was secured during the final days of the Biden Administration and went into effect on January 19. As part of the truce, Palestinian prisoners would be returned in exchange for Israeli hostages.
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On Saturday, Hamas released three more Israeli hostages, and Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners.
“It gives us great relief to see more hostages coming out,” said Temple Sinai Rabbi Natan Trief. “It is not at the rate we need. We need all the hostages released immediately.”
President Donald Trump is urging Israel to give Hamas an ultimatum to release all the hostages at once and threatening that if Hamas does not do so, to cancel the ceasefire deal altogether. Earlier this week, Trump also suggested the U.S. would take over the Gaza Strip and Palestinians would be relocated to Egypt and Jordan.
Trump suggested previously that he could withhold aid from Jordan and Egypt if they do not accept displaced Palestinians but then said he would not quote “threaten with money.”
Rabbi Trief said he sees what Trump is doing and saying as an unconventional way to solve this conflict.
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“One thing I do respect about President Trump’s plan is that it changes the whole equation,” he said. “It makes the Palestinians and especially Hamas realize that they have something to lose if they launch an exterminationist war.’
However, Palestinians said what Trump is proposing is disturbing and contributing to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
“When are you going to treat the Palestinians like individuals who have the right to stay in their homes,” said Jawahir Sharwany, a Palestinian activist.
King Abdullah II of Jordan said during a visit with Trump earlier this week that Jordan would take in 2000 sick children from Gaza as quickly as possible.
So far during the ceasefire’s first phase which ends in a couple of weeks, 24 hostages and nearly 1000 Palestinian prisoners have been freed.
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