UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (WTAJ)– Under a tent at the Allen Street Gates, several Penn State students and community members gathered for a protest in support of Palestine Thursday evening.

The event comes after last Saturday’s attacks by Hamas which has grown to a war in the days since. Protestors stood under their tent guarded by individuals with their faces covered acting as security.

Organizer and Penn State student Roua Daas joined her fellow protestors under the tent as they waved signs and chanted.

“We are here today in solidarity with the Palestinian people to say that our tax dollars still continue to go to Israel every single year,” Daas said. “We are here to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and say enough is enough.”

Daas says that this is about the conflict that has gone on between Israelis and Palestinians for generations.

“The Palestinian people have been under occupation for 75 years, since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948,” Daas said. “Palestinians have been facing daily oppression at the hands of Israel.”

Across College Ave. on the sidewalk, Jewish student Jack McComb gathered with his friends in a counter-demonstration. They held an Israeli flag as they watched silently.

“The only thing they are resisting is Israel’s own resistance against their terrorism,” McComb said. “They are a genocidal organization, it’s in their charter to kill all Jews globally.”

McComb says that this is not a two-sided issue and that no one should be defending the attacks by Hamas.

“We are here to mourn our dead,” McComb said. “They’re over there to mourn the killers, the people that are killing Israelis, killing Israeli babies, and raping Israeli women.”

When asked what would she say to those who say that Daas and other protestors are defending the attacks by Hamas she had this response:

“I would say again that Israel has murdered one thousand two hundred Palestinians in 5 days,” Daas said.