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Protesters rally outside MacDill over U.S. supplying Israel with weapons
FOX 13's Evan Axelbank reports.
TAMPA - Protesters stood outside MacDill Air Force Base Thursday morning to demand the US stop sending money and arms to Israel.
Five people were arrested before 10 a.m. when several of them held up a sign in the middle of Dale Mabry Highway that said, "Veteran's Against Genocide."
Several dozen members of a group calling themselves "Veterans for Peace" demanded that the US stop sending money and arms to a government that they say is unnecessarily brutalizing innocent people who live in the Gaza Strip.
Dig deeper:
Several international bodies have found that Israel's occupation is causing a famine and qualifies as a genocide.
While President Trump has shown some frustration over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military-first approach, the protesters are pushing the US to go a step further.
"Our tax dollars being spent on bombing innocent civilians, innocent men, women, and children who did nothing wrong," said protester Ramon Pereira Bonilla, "who did not deserve to be at the receiving end of our weaponry, being slaughtered like animals, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The backstory:
The Israeli occupation of Gaza started after the October 7, 2023, attacks against innocent Israeli citizens by Hamas, which had been the ruling party there.
Twelve-hundred Israelis were killed that day, including 736 Israeli civilians.
Two-hundred-fifty Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas, with 48 of them still being held.
The ensuing incursion into Gaza has left more than 200,000 killed or injured, which is ten percent of the population.
The Trump Administration has said Israel has a right to defend itself, though has been disappointed by the lack of a negotiated ceasefire.
Most of the charges for those arrested are obstruction of the sidewalk or street, disobeying a police officer and resisting arrest.
The Source: FOX 13 reporter Evan Axelbank gathered the information for this story.