ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Monday marks one year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, took 250 others into Gaza as hostages, and started the war in Gaza.

More than 100 people are still being held hostage in Gaza, including seven Americans. So far, the war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and displaced most of the region’s 2.3 million people. News10NBC spoke with pro-Israel and pro-Palestine supporters on the events that have happened since the Oct. 7 attack.

Meredith Dragon of the Jewish Federation said the terror attacks made an enormous impact on Israel.

“The proportionality would be as if 40,000 Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in one day if you compare body to body, Dragon said. “So the enormity is huge. And for most American Jews living here in the United States, we know somebody who was impacted.”

But critics of the war say many of the 41,000 people killed in Gaza have been civilians including women and children.

“My current stance on what is happening in Gaza is that it is not a conflict. Is that it is not a war. Is that it is an act of genocide that has been propagated by 75 years of occupation and apartheid,” said Jonathan Khoury of the Committee to End Apartheid. “It’s a very simple assessment. As a matter of fact, it’s an assessment that’s been confirmed by organizations like the Human Rights Watch, like Amnesty International, even Beth Selam, which is a human rights organization within Israel itself.”

Dragon argues that the war is to defend democracy in the Middle East.

“People forget that Israel is a democracy in the Middle East, an ally of the United States, for the simple reason it’s the only democracy in the Middle East with a democratically elected government,” she said. “And that is truly unique. It’s a unique country, a unique place. And certainly, the press around Israel this year in the media has been so challenging and so complicated and has misrepresented Israel in the most awful, awful ways.”

Khoury said he wants an end to what pro-Palestinian groups are calling a genocide.

“Israel claims to be the only democracy within the Middle East and therefore it should be willing to subject itself to criticism either from its citizens or from its international allies,” Khoury said. “In no way and no world is the criticism of a government’s action, is the criticism of our government’s apartheid, incessant bombing, occupation, and genocide ever to be conflated with anti-Semitism.”

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