MERCER ISLAND, Wash. — A man who was at the Nova music festival in Israel when Hamas attacked nearly two months ago was one of hundreds of people who marched along Interstate 90 Sunday to show their support for Israel.
"It happened to me. It happened around me. I saw dozens and dozens of bodies, saw armed men, we heard the screaming, we heard the gunfire, all of it," said Shye Klein Weinstein.
He is originally from Toronto but has been living in Israel since April and is now being called a survivor.
"We had to run for our lives,” said Weinstein. “That's not a sentence I ever imagined myself having to say."
Weinstein, along with a group of friends, attended the Supernova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7, which was where hundreds of people were killed and injured, with dozens still missing.
"Drove through the fields, passed abandoned cars, passed bodies, passed checkpoints, rockets overhead the whole time, passed armed men and we got to Tel Aviv at 9:45 in the morning so fast, that people were still being murdered," said Weinstein.
"This has been a nightmare that won't end," said Mercer Island Deputy Mayor David Rosenbaum.
Rosenbaum said he wanted to be at Sunday’s event to stand in support of his community, especially after the synagogue he goes to on the island was vandalized just two weeks ago.
“It's incredibly heartbreaking to see that someone would do that and to think that's the way you're going to bring peace in our society, bring peace to our world, I simply can't understand and that," said Rosenbaum.
Rosenbaum said the city supports the Jewish community and condemns the actions of Hamas.
"Our goal is to build a welcoming community for everyone,” said Rosenbaum. “There is no place for this type of hatred here; this type of antisemitism does not belong anywhere in our society."