HANOVER — Monday afternoon, travelers to and from Hanover might have encountered a scene they’ve grown accustomed to: sign-holding activists on Ledyard Bridge.

It’s a site where demonstrators regularly meet to raise awareness of political and social issues, from racial justice to climate change.

Now, the Israel-Hamas war has struck peace advocates with a new sense of urgency, some protestors said.

“One of my greatest fears is that this will spread,” said Norwich resident Liz Blum. She’s been wearing a button that says “This Jew Stands with Gaza” for weeks now.

Since Israel declared war on Oct. 7, an estimated 5,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on the territory. The declaration came after Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched raids, killed 1,400 Israelis, and took over 200 hostage.

“What Israel is doing, what the U.S. is doing, those aren’t Jewish values,” said Blum, who is a member of the national group Jewish Voice for Peace.

Next to her, Lyme’s Daisy Goodman, also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, jumped in.

“Because Judaism teaches that if you extinguish one life, you extinguish the whole world,” Goodman said.

The U.S. Congress is poised to pass a spending package that includes $14 billion in weapons and ammunition for Israel. Since 2009, the U.S. has annually supplied Israel with more than $3 billion in military assistance.

“What’s most appalling is the way our government has allowed this to happen,” said Norwich resident Kathleen Shepherd. “We were in the position to insist that (Palestinians) be treated decently. You can’t do this to people for generations.”

After 9/11, Shepherd said she spent a decade protesting war on Route 12A, every Saturday, no matter the season.

“At the beginning, people were angry at us, as emotions were raw,” she said. “Then over the years, people saw the consequences.”

The demonstration on the bridge came after a vigil in Hanover last Thursday hosted by the Dartmouth student-run Palestine Solidarity Coalition.

Carrying black flags, about 300 people walked to Parkhurst Hall, which houses the president’s office. There, the mourners placed the flags in the ground, each meant to represent a portion of the thousands of Palestinian lives lost since the Israel-Hamas war began.

“This vigil was to mourn the lives lost, on both sides,” said Heya Shah, a sophomore at Dartmouth from India, at the event. “It’s such a big issue that’s been made political.”

But as violence in the region continues to unfold, the message of the gathering in Hanover went beyond grief.

“What we do matters,” said sophomore Ramsey Alsheikh, president of the student coalition. “There is a limit to what we can do, but it is a responsibility for us to be at that limit.” A resident of Florida, Alsehikh’s mother is Palestinian.

On Monday, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 700 Palestinians in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday morning. It was the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel’s two-week bombing strike on the territory.

Dozens of humanitarian trucks arrived in Gaza over the weekend, but aid workers there say the supplies only scratch the surface of need.

Emotional encounters concerning the Israel-Hamas war have erupted across college campuses and cultural institutions in the U.S. as demonstrations from Palestinian and Israeli supporters continue. Amidst controversy, religious and political groups fight for space to grieve the loss of life on both sides.

In the first days of the conflict, Dartmouth hosted a series of discussions featuring faculty from the Jewish studies and Middle Eastern studies department. One of the panels was followed by a vigil organized by the college for Israeli lives lost in the initial attack.

A week later, the Palestinian coalition hosted its own event.

President Beilock — who spoke at the Israeli vigil — wasn’t in attendance at last Thursday night’s event.

“President Beilock has met with students from Al-Nur, the Palestine Solidarity Coalition and many other groups, including Hillel and Chabad,” wrote a college spokeswoman, Jana Barnello, in a Tuesday email to the Valley News. “She’ll continue to work with all student groups to find ways and venues to show support for them.”

Palestinian-Tunisian sophomore Yasmine Abouali told to the crowd gathered outside the Collis student center about her experience witnessing the war unfold from afar.

“Someone yesterday told me this is the war of my generation,” Abouli said. “But I didn’t know how to reconcile that with what I see in Gaza right now. Because this isn’t the war of my generation. This is the ongoing, three-generation-long result of oppression, occupation and apartheid.

“Tonight we mourn the lives lost in this war, but we also mourn all the lives lost to these crimes in the past 100 years,” she said.

Freshman Ahmad Herzallah, from Gaza, spoke of family and friends who had been killed over the years by violence related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Herzallah mourned his uncle, as well as a friend from middle school with a “pure soul” and a “great sense of humor.”

Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.