Jewish, Palestinian Montrealers anxiously follow developments in Hamas-Israel conflict

Shauli Talmor's social media apps have been flooded with people posting about missing loved ones since the militant group Hamas unleashed a surprise attack on his home country of Israel early Saturday.

All Talmor can do is watch from his home in Montreal where he has lived for two years. He said he has barely slept in an effort to stay in the loop with his friends and family who now find themselves in a state of war.

"We always knew the situation is tense and fragile, but I would never hope that something like that would happen," he said, referring to the images and videos he has seen of civilians — including children and the elderly — being seized by Hamas fighters and taken to Gaza. 

"The pain is huge," said Talmor. 

According to Israeli media reports, around 700 people there have been killed over the weekend; Palestinian officials report around 400 people killed in Gaza. 

The attack on civilians is worrisome, said Kyle Matthews, executive director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. 

"We don't want to see that open up the doors and become normal in conflict," he said. "And then we're seeing protests celebrating that in our own countries."

In Montreal, supporters of the Palestinian efforts gathered at Dorchester Square on Sunday afternoon before marching to the Israeli Consulate in Westmount, singing chants like "Palestine will be free." Similar demonstrations were held across Canada. 

Rama Al Malah said she showed up at the Montreal demonstration because protests such as these are an opportunity to put a spotlight on the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

"We're just here honestly to support our people back home, our people in Gaza, our people in the West Bank —everywhere in Palestine — who have been expelled from their homes and oppressed for the past 75 years," she said.

The United Nations says the state of Israel was established over seven decades ago, resulting in the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians. 

"This sort of stuff is not very mainstream," said Al Malah, who has family living in the Palestinian territories.

Fouad Sahyoun, another Montrealer of Palestinian origin, told Radio-Canada that the attack from Hamas fighters was predictable. 

"We can't continue to live in Gaza in an open-sky prison completely surrounded on all four corners with a population of 2.5 million who are living in a lamentable state," he said. 

Talmor agrees a long-term solution needs to be reached. 

"We already know history. and we saw that every few years we have something, unfortunately, and that's the only solution, but not like [this]," he said, referring to the attack on Israeli civilians. 

"If you want to fight, fight against soldiers, that's OK. But you call yourselves heroes against a two-year-old child?" Talmor said.

Matthews said he worries Hamas's attack will make the conflict worse for both Israelis and Palestinians. 

"It's going to bring it to another level." 

Rabbi Lisa Grushcow said there's a lot of grief and anxiety right now among her congregation as people wait and see how the weekend's events will play out. 

"My only hope is that we find a way for this to end quickly, with as little loss of life as possible, and that there be an understanding of the kind of horror and heartbreak that's being experienced right now," she said.