Students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign held separate events on the two-year anniversary of Israel launching its war in Gaza, as some honored the victims of the Oct. 7 attack while others called for local action to support the Palestinian people.
Jewish student groups held a remembrance event Tuesday afternoon. Later that evening, about 100 protesters looped around the U of I Quad, marched down Green Street and later blocked the intersection at Goodwin Avenue.
The events come as Israel and Hamas hold peace talks over a plan brokered between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Evening protest calls for divestment, brings buses to a halt
The group Students for Justice in Palestine UIUC led the evening protest and urged the university to divest from military companies.
“For the past two years, we have watched the annihilation of Gaza with horror, with grief and with rage, while our UIUC administration conducts cost benefit analyses, weighing human suffering and death against dollars and cents,” SJP said in a statement.
SJP previously participated in nationwide campus protests for the same cause in April 2024.
Savoy resident Hamad Mahmoud attended the pro-Palestinian protest with his small children, who were pulling his wife down the street as students blocked the intersection. He said his family wanted the siege of Gaza and the killing to stop.
Then he swiped through the photo gallery in his phone and paused on a picture of rubble.
“The girl who lived here was our cousin. She was living in this room. She died. She has three kids,” Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud said his cousin in southern Lebanon died because of Israeli bombing. Her children survived but are now without their mother.
Two years ago on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, largely civilians. Israel responded by launching a military operation that has killed or injured one in 10 people in Gaza and displaced nine in 10.
The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah also began firing rockets into Israel around the same time. The conflict escalated into a war in September 2024 and quieted with a ceasefire in November. Both continue to carry out strikes, but Israel’s efforts have been more deadly, killing hundreds of civilians.
Marcie Davis was riding the bus to return home from an errand. She stepped out to watch the protest and weigh whether to take the long walk home. Despite the inconvenience, she felt the protest was necessary.
“The people in Gaza are getting sick. Nobody really cares for them. They die every day and no one cares,” Davis said. “That’s crazy.”
Jewish student groups remember Oct. 7 victims
Tuesday was the start of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Illini Chabad held an event on the U of I Quad in the afternoon Tuesday to mark the holiday and remember those Hamas killed on Oct. 7. Dozens of people linked arms and sang a prayer for the hostages still being held by Hamas.
Political Science senior Jayden Fogel participated. She said these past two years have changed her career path.
“I’ve seen all the causes that I support and champion turn on us, turn on Jews, turn on Israel. And I now call myself a struggling Democrat, because it is hard and I feel that I need to take that passion and take those skills and pivot towards Israel,” Fogel said.
When asked about a United Nations panel that concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, Fogel said the UN has been inconsistent in what it has labeled genocide over time — and that Israel is doing its best to provide aid to Gaza without letting the aid go to Hamas.
Local activists on Gaza aid flotilla returning home
As community members weighed the two-year anniversary of the war, some Central Illinoisians were on their way back home after seeking to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza and being detained by the Israeli military.
Jessica Clotfelter was on the flotilla of boats trying to deliver food and medicine to Gaza. Israeli forces intercepted the activists while in international waters last week.
Clotfelter’s brother says she was released Tuesday and is flying back to Illinois as of Wednesday.
Urbana resident Sharon Monday’s cousin was also detained on the flotilla. He was released to Jordan on Monday and flew back to his home in Oregon Tuesday night.
Israel has said it has needed to blockade Gaza since 2007 for security purposes.