TEMPLE TERRACE — Ashley Green marveled at how loud it got Saturday afternoon at Fowler Avenue and 56th Street, with flag-waving demonstrators — some holding megaphones ― chanting their support for Palestinians while cars and trucks passing by honked in solidarity.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Green, an activist with Tampa Bay Dream Defenders and with Movement St. Pete. “Oftentimes when we protest, we’re lucky to get 40, 50, 60 people.”

This time, there were four or five times that many, united in opposition to deadly airstrikes mounted during the weekend by Israel against neighboring Gaza. Drawing a crowd in Tampa for this kind of demonstration has always proven difficult, Green said.

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The recent hostilities point up an enduring failure to find a home for the people of Palestine, said Imam Abdullah Jaber, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida chapter.

“The solution is to give the Palestinian people free governance of themselves, the pursuit of liberty, justice, and freedom for themselves. That’s it.”