'Our hearts are broken': Montrealers rally in show of solidarity with Israel

Hundreds of people gathered at a rally Tuesday in support of Israel in another show of solidarity for a community reeling from the recent conflict.

The crowd crammed into Westmount Square and spilled into the street, wearing and waving flags to show their support for family and friends back home.

The rally was organized by a group of rabbis, including Rabbi Reuben Poupko.

"Our hearts are broken. The losses over the weekend were horrendous," Poupko said at the event.

"We are Jews. We are proud and the nicest thing anybody can say about any one of us is that we are Zionists that support the state of Israel."

Thinking of those caught in the conflict, many felt unsure about what comes next.

Behind a police line, a small group of Palestinian supporters did not want to speak to the media. They said their chants speak for themselves.

"This situation is being framed as though the war has been going on for the past 48 hours, but the war has been ongoing for 75 years," said Sarah Shamy, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, in an interview after the event.

Shamy says civilians are paying the price in Israel's response to the Hamas attacks.

"They're bombing residential buildings with complete impunity," she said.

Analyst Rachad Antonius, a retired professor who taught sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, says leaders of the world should remain neutral.

"I believe that the only way out for the moment is for the international community to interfere and to force a de-escalation of a conflict," he said in an interview.

"Right now, the international community has taken such a biased support for the occupation force, that it is not able to play this peaceful role that it should be playing."

As the death toll climbs. demonstrator Erwin Neumark called on people from both sides to hope for peace.

"We can spend years talking about the background, but what happened was an atrocity. Innocent people … [at] a music festival, doing their own thing, and slaughtered. I'm not even going to use the words, but it was carnage," Neumark said.