FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Police officers were forced to intervene when the participants of two opposing protests clashed on Sunday in Broward County.
The two groups of demonstrators waved flags in downtown Fort Lauderdale in reaction to the Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in over 700 people being killed.
“A brief confrontation occurred between the two groups however #FLPD separated the groups and there were no other major issues,” a spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department wrote on X.
The groups stood along East Sunrise Boulevard. The Defend Israel Emergency Rally was near North Federal Highway. The groups supporting Palestinians were just across the street and on Sunrise Boulevard.
“As Americans, we stand united with the people of Israel,” one protester, Josh Levy, told Local 10 News.
Both events ended before 8 p.m. Police officers arrested one of the protesters for causing a disturbance, police said. No one was injured.
“We came out with our flag and our banner that we usually hang here for Palestine. They came across from all the way over there from the tree stump, two blocks down the street, to punch us, to spit at us, to yell at us,” one pro-Palestinian protester said.
The group later marched with signs and flags, showing their support for the Palestinian people amid an all out war in Israel.
“We know hate when we see it, and Hamas is a hate group,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.
Hamas-led militants fired dozens of rockets over the weekend, killing hundreds of Israelis in a surprise attack.
Many now fear for their lives, including Mayan Derhy, who moved from Miami to Israel last year.
She spoke to Local 10 Sunday on “This Week in South Florida.”
“I don’t think this many Jews have been killed in a day since the Holocaust. This is not about Israel anymore, this is about being human,” she said.
“Elderly, kids, women, pregnant women -- more than a hundred that are missing, probably held hostage,” said Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Israeli Consulate General in Miami.
We also heard from a woman who was on the phone with her son as he was kidnapped by militants.
“I heard someone breaking in -- like the door, break(ing) in the house,” she said. “They opened the door and I could hear my youngest son saying, ‘Don’t take me. I’m too young.’ He’s only 12. That was the last time I heard from him.”
The unrest and uncertainty in the region is now causing some in South Florida to cancel their travel plans.
“We were to fly to Israel on Tuesday. We had a planned trip for the past few months,” said Roni Levy, who cancelled his trip.
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This Week In South Florida episode