The Boston City Council on Wednesday discussed, but did not pass, a resolution condemning Hamas and expressing solidarity with Israel.
The matter was sent to the committee on the whole. The proposal, sponsored by Councilor Michael Flaherty, proposed that the legislative body express its solidarity “with the State of Israel and the Israeli people, as well as those innocent Palestinians suffering as a result of the terrorist acts perpetrated by Hamas.” On Wednesday, he noted that Americans were being held hostage by Hamas, while emphasizing the importance of standing with American allies.
“War is hell, frankly,” Flaherty said on the council floor.
Councilor Frank Baker railed against the Hamas attacks against Israelis, saying, “We need to call it what it was.”
“I’m standing to say we need to condemn what Hamas did, not the Palestinian people,” Baker said.
He added, “This is bad, bad stuff.”
Councilor Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta said that while she rejects terrorism in all forms, including the Hamas attacks on Israel earlier this month, she had concerns that one resolution would not speak to all the complexities of the Middle East conflict. “This is a very nuanced conversation,” she said.
“Violence begets violence, peace is the only battle worth waging,” she said.
Her formal objection sent the matter to the committee on the whole.
At the start of the meeting, Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff told the councilors that he was in Israel on Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. He described hearing air raid sirens and evacuating a building and heading to a bomb shelter. Korff said, “We all sympathize with any civilian, Palestinian, Israeli, anyone who is being injured.” But to support Hamas, he said, “is unacceptable.”
“This is inhumanity,” he said. “This is pure terrorism.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s council hearing, authorities were preparing for a significant protest outside City Hall.
Metal barricades were erected around the building’s entrance facing the Government Center MBTA stop. A significant police presence could be seen inside and outside the building. On the fifth floor, which is home to the City Council chamber and the mayor’s office, more than a dozen uniformed police officers milled about before the noon meeting.
While the press corps and police were present on City Hall Plaza before noon, there was no sign of protesters.
Flaherty had previously voiced support for Israel on Oct. 10 in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I stand with the people of Israel,” Flaherty wrote. “The terror attacks by Hamas are cowardly and the killing of innocent civilians despicable. There’s no waffling here folks. The Israeli people have our unwavering support.”
Flaherty referred to Hamas’s massacre on Oct. 7 in which some 1,400 Israelis were killed and at least 199 taken hostage.
On that same social media platform earlier this week, Flaherty’s colleague, Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson tagged Flaherty in a repost of a media report that showed suffering Israel caused in Gaza. In another repost, Fernandes Anderson, who did not speak about the resolution on the council floor Wednesday, highlighted a message that read in part: “Israelis have agency. They don’t have to commit war crimes.”
“Hope this helps,” Fernandes Anderson told Flaherty on the platform.
Israel responded to Hamas’s attacks earlier this month with a relentless bombardment campaign that had killed at least 3,478 people and wounded more than 12,000; a large number of the dead were children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.
On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that he believes a deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital that killed hundreds on Tuesday was not carried out by the Israeli military.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said, while also citing “a lot of people out there” unsure what caused the blast, sparking protests throughout the Middle East.
No clear cause has been established for the explosion. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.