On October 7th, a Palestinian militant group led by Hamas sent a rocket barrage towards Israel. The attacks resulted in a large number of civilian deaths. Despite this happening seven thousand miles away from Whittier, Rio Hondo students had a lot of opinions about the events that took place in Israel.

Student Diego Bustos said “While the events occurring in Palestine are tragic, we must remember that the blame for this tragedy rests solely on the Israeli government, which has had every opportunity to reverse the decades of genocide and oppression that necessitated Hamas in the first place. When peaceful protests are met with bullets, what recourse is left?”. A lot of students expressed upset feelings about the alleged news and videos that they have seen on the internet and various social media platforms including, TikTok of the terrorists kidnapping hostages and graphicly slaughtering children. Student Rebekah Burns relayed what she had heard “My grandma said that they kidnapped a bunch of people and they kidnapped an old lady who survived the Nazis in World War II”. English major Matthew Merino said, “The Israeli Military themselves, they said they had no evidence of beheading babies”.

The events that took place in Israel were incredibly tragic and if you feel emotionally impacted about what happened, you can reach out to Rio Hondo’s Psychological Services to speak to someone about it. You can make an appointment by visiting the website at https://www.riohondo.edu/student-health-services/psychological-services.