(WXYZ) — Monday marks one year since Hamas terrorists attacked a music festival in Israel killing around 1,200 men, women and children, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
RELATED STORY: War rages on multiple fronts as Israel marks a year since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack
Following the attack, Hamas took 254 people hostage including 12 Americans into Gaza. After killing more than half of them over the last year, about 101 of the hostages are still being held today.
The attack sparked a war that has now been fought for a full year and resulted in the deaths of 42,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians and refugees completely removed from the fighting.
The war has brought about a rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism across the nation and here at home.
Around 4 a.m. Monday, The Max M. Fischer Federation Building, which is used by the Jewish Federation of Detroit, was vandalized.
"We left this up for people to see. We want the world to see," said David Kurzmann who is the senior director of community affairs for the Jewish Federation of Detroit. "I certainly hope the general community sees this as an eye-opening moment that this hate has unfortunately come to our front door."
Using red and black spray paint, the vandals tagged the words "Free Palestine", "F*** Israel" and "Intifada" on windows, sidewalks, and doors. They also sprayed over the building's call box and a security camera.
The FBI and Bloomfield Township Police are now investigating the incident.
"The language that’s used is such that makes us feel a sense of both fear and anger. To see the word Intifada on the building, that brings back memories of the second Intifada in the early 2000s when buses were blown up by suicide bombers," said Kurzmann.
Kurzmann says this is now the third time their building has been vandalized in the last year.
"It’s saddening, heart wrenching knowing that this has happened and knowing what has happened this past year and there’s still fighting going on," said Sylvia Sherman before walking into the building Monday. "To feel like you’re hated all the time is not a really pretty feeling. It’s really hard and you gotta go on but as Jews, we say we’re not going to let this get to us."
Sherman says it's her grandfather’s name that adorns the building.
"I’m not surprised because it is a Jewish building but it’s sickening and when I saw the video this morning I was screaming at home," said Sherman. "I couldn’t believe that someone would do something to such a beautiful building and a place that means so much to so many people."
As the conflict continues to claim lives overseas and divide communities here in Metro Detroit, calls for peace are renewing.
Dr. Ammar Ghanem who serves as the vice president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) spent 17 days working in a hospital in Gaza this spring.
"When we went there, we couldn’t believe what we can see," said Dr. Ghanem.
Ghanem says in his time at the hospital in Gaza, every person he treated was a civilian and most of them were women and children. He estimated seeing the loss of 50 civilians and 100 or more injuries daily.
"They have nothing to do with the fighting but civilians are losing their life and paying the cost for this," said Ghanem. "This is the most painful thing to see: a child that - he’s so innocent, doesn’t know what’s going on around him, and not recognize why people are fighting and he’s being hurt."
Dr. Ghanem says he's hopeful of seeing a ceasefire soon.
"Everybody deserves to have a life with dignity including Palestinian, Israeli, all Arabs, Lebanese what’s going on now. We wish everybody to live in peace. As a human, that’s my wish now," said Ghanem.
