SAN ANTONIO — Most of San Antonio had their eyes on the Annular Eclipse Saturday, but some eyes were focused on Palestine and the civilians there caught between two sides of a war they never asked for.
“Over 2,000 people have been killed in Gaza in a place where 2 million people are confined to a 365-kilometer square area,” Maureen Kaki, co-founder of San Antonio for justice in Palestine, said into a megaphone to the people gathered in front of San Fernando Cathedral Saturday.
“And over half of those two million people are children!” she added, finishing her thought.
The sun cast crescent shapes through the trees while protesters prepared their signs.
San Antonians in Main Plaza gazed up at Saturday's eclipse through protective glasses, but there no glasses in sight at a nearby rally as all eyes were on the Gaza Strip as it faced its darkest hour.
"Gaza is tired. Gaza is tired.” Kaki said. “Because when we try to tell you, through U.N. resolutions and through legal pursuits and through the framework of human rights, you didn't listen!"
The Gaza Strip has been under siege since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an attack against Israel, killing over 1,300 people.
"What Hamas is doing – and I'm not trying to defend Hamas by what they have done – what they have done is ugly,” said Asil Elashy, a math teacher who moved to the United States 25 years ago.
“But again, this is a reaction of what of all of the actions we've been through," Elashy said.
Israel's reaction to that attack has, as of Saturday, killed over 2,100 Palestinians. On Friday, Israeli authorities warned civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south within 24 hours.
"Where do you want them to go? There is nowhere,” Elashy said.
Asil Elashy has family in the Gaza Strip. She has been in the U.S. for 25 years.
"People over there are out of water, out of power. We're out of medical supplies."
She said her brother, his family as well as her mother have fled the northern part of Gaza, but are still trying to figure out where they will be safe from Israeli bombs.
"This is not going to help provide safety for Israel,” Elashy said. “This is just killing innocent civilians."
Elashy fears her own tax dollars will, through U.S. aid to Israel, end up killing her own family overseas. Many at Saturday's rally, and at similar ones throughout the country, have labeled Israel’s actions as genocide.
"If it's not going to be called genocide, what else could it be called?” Elashy said. “What is the definition of genocide when you are killing massive number of people under their bombardment?"
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