The big picture: For months, pro-Palestinian organizers in Houston and across the country have been demanding a ceasefire and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
Protests have intensified as the civilian death toll has soared. Israel's attacks have killed more than 35,000 in Gaza, many of them women and children.
Israel is responding to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people and during which around 240 were taken hostage.
What they're saying: "The protest today is to express condemnation and anger for the invasion of Rafah, a city in Palestine that is majority refugee at this point," Nishu Dada, with Houstonians for Palestinian Liberation, tells Axios. "The fact that they're bombing children, bombing men, women in their tents is egregious to us. And we can't let our city continue to be financially complicit."
She adds that pro-Palestinian organizers declared what they call the "People's Resolution of Palestine" — which protesters read during the City Council's weekly public comment session — since Houston has not yet proposed a ceasefire resolution.
