Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Israel has launched intense airstrikes in Gaza after the territory’s militant rulers carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing over 1000 people and taking captives. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes.
AP Photo/Fatima Shbair
Many Bronx politicians, from local to national representatives, have come together to declare their support for Israel in the wake of the terrorist attacks Saturday that have left more than 1,000 Israelis dead.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the Bronx’s 15th Congressional District, which includes the Bronx’s largest Jewish population in Riverdale, has been one of the most outspoken in his support for Israel since the militant group Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7. In a statement Saturday, the congress member said the Israeli government is doing what the U.S. would do under similar circumstances to defend itself.
“I unequivocally stand with Israel as it rightly defends itself and condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of Hamas — a terrorist organization that has long sought the destruction of the Jewish state — and extend my deepest condolences for the innocent Israeli lives lost thus far,” Torres said.
The conflict between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Israelis goes back about 75 years, although Saturday’s attack was the worst in decades — with some U.S. politicians comparing the massacre to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan.
Gaza is a coastal strip of land southwest of Israel along the Mediterranean Sea. Formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire and then ruled by the British, Egyptians and Israelis — the fenced-in, 25-mile-long enclave is inhabited by around 2 million Palestinians, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.
Given the Israeli occupation and the ongoing battle for the Holy Land, Palestinians and Israelis have had a…
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