In San Francisco on Saturday, thousands of people marched through the wind and rain in a protest, calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
It was one of many similar protests happening around the U.S. and around the world on Saturday.
This protest comes as Israel has signaled its intent to attack the city of Rafah, where it is estimated that more than 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering in dire humanitarian conditions.
Sabina Wildman of San Francisco, who participated in the protest, said that many of the demonstrators Saturday are trying to urge those in power not to launch any attacks on Rafah. Wildman is an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition.
“These are people who are refugees multiple times over," Wildman noted of the people sheltering in Rafah, emphasizing that many of those people are facing starvation.
With concerns of famine growing and aid bottlenecked on the ground through Israel's border crossings, the U.S. is airdropping 38,000 meals to Gaza's coastline.
"That’s why we need an end to the entire siege, some aid is good but it's not enough," Wildman said.
In San Francisco, the protestors made their way to the Consulate General of Israel where they planned to express their demands for a ceasefire outside the consulate. The protestors who spoke with NBC Bay Area said their demonstration was peaceful.
Video shared by demonstrators shows San Francisco Police officers pepper spraying protestors and striking them with batons. Organizers say that the police response left some protestors with injuries, including broken hands.
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Wildman said she was pepper sprayed. So did Wassim Hage, an Oakland resident with the Arab Resource Organizing Center.
Hage described the police actions as, “completely, completely unwarranted violence against peaceful protestors,” and noted that some children in the crowd were struck with batons.
San Francisco Police sent NBC Bay Area a statement late Saturday about this incident, saying that it happened just before 3:00 p.m. in the area of Sacramento and Montgomery Streets.
"The group became violent and began to commit crimes ranging from assault to felony vandalism and causing property damage," the police statement said.
SFPD went on to say that several officers at the scene sustained injuries and that one person who was demonstrating also reported being injured. SFPD did not comment on the use of pepper spray or batons in this incident.
Meanwhile, a U.S. senior administration official has told NBC News that Israel has essentially accepted the proposed framework for a six-week cease-fire in Gaza. Truce talks are expected to continue in Egypt on Sunday.
But the demonstrators in the Bay Area Saturday emphatically called for a permanent and immediate ceasefire.
Saturday evening, a different group was out in front of the Consulate of Israel, etching messages calling for a ceasefire in chalk on the sidewalk.
“I come here to the Israeli consulate twice a week to raise awareness about what’s happening to the Palestinian people," said Martha Hubert of San Francisco, who identified herself as being with the Revolutionary Love Brigade.
Hubert pointed to one of her chalk messages which highlighted the latest statistic from the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry: that the Israel-Hamas war has now killed at least 30,000 Palestinians.
"I correspond with someone who is in Rafah with his three children and his wife, and they live in a tent and there’s sewage running through it," Hubert noted.
Many demonstrators in San Francisco Saturday said that what is unfolding in Gaza is shaping how they will vote and how they feel about being Americans.
"The movement is only growing, more people are going to be out in the streets, more people are going to be withholding their votes, and we’re not going to stop until we see justice and peace in Palestine," Hage said.
