Photo/Illutration Rally participants create a message of peace with candles in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on Nov. 11. (Jun Ueda)

HIROSHIMA--Hundreds of Hiroshima residents staged a vigil in front of the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome here Nov. 11 to call for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The 300 or so participants formed the words “Stop genocide in Gaza” with lit candles.

They observed a minute of silence and then made speeches. 

The rally came after a little more than a month after a border raid by the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas on southern Israel that left around 1,200 people dead. The militants also took hundreds hostage.

Israel responded by invading Gaza, vowing to destroy Hamas once and for all. An Israeli Cabinet minister even mentioned the use of nuclear weapons as “an option.”

Hiroshima carried a special resonance for the protest due to the 1945 atomic bombing of the city that claimed at least 140,000 lives. 

“Don’t kill anyone,” the protestors shouted.

Aoe Tanami, an associate professor of Middle East studies at Hiroshima City University, described the Hamas attack as “a desperate and wrong operation that endangered the lives of the people in Gaza.”

At the same time, she blasted Israel’s response, saying: “The military is erasing an ethnic group that has faced tremendous discrimination with overwhelming military power. This is the most unjust war crime.”

The death toll in the Gaza Strip as of Nov. 10 came to more than 11,000, including an estimated 4,500 children.

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