Norwich ― Calls for unity and peace were punctuated by heated exhortations by pro-Palestine speakers during a vigil gathering Tuesday in the shadow of City Hall called to mark the escalating violence in the Middle East.

On a day when the civilian death toll continued to mount in Israel and along the Gaza Strip, a group of about 50 religious leaders, local legislators and community members formed a semi-circle on the David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard for a candlelight vigil organized by the Norwich Area Interfaith Association.

The event, the latest in the region since a brutal assault on Israel by the militant group Hamas, was attended by numerous Muslim community members, many holding “Free Palestine” signs and at times chanting calls to “Free, free Palestine.”

There was a significant police presence at the event.

The Rev. David Horst, minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Norwich, said the association held the vigil in the face of an escalating Israeli and Palestinian death toll and a desire to acknowledge the “pain, suffering and horror visited on both sides” of the conflict.

“Even now, in the midst of war, we wanted the voices of religious persons to be spoken and heard,” he said in a phone interview prior to the vigil. “We wanted a space where people ― who may not know how to feel ― can be in anguish. We are on the side of peace, love and reconciliation.”

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With a West African drumbeat sounding behind him, City Councilor Swaranjit Singh Khalsa said violence of any stripe requires condemnation, along with an acknowledgment that pain, like politics, is a true local issue, no matter where the dying occurs.

“We need a general awareness that everything that happens in the world impacts local communities,” Singh Khalsa said. “We condemn any violence, which is the failure of democracy and diplomacy.”

Singh Khalsa, a member of the Sikh faith, said it falls to the United States and its global partners to ensure peace flourishes though their promotion of social, racial and climate justice.

“There are people here in Connecticut who are feeling pain and trauma, who don’t feel safe,” he said. “When that happens, world events automatically become local issues.”

Zeina Traboulsi, a 22-year-old Muslim from Stonington, accused most Americans of unfairly focusing their attention on the plight of Israeli Jews and glossing over what she called decades of oppression suffered by Palestinians.

Traboulsi’s sentiments were echoed by several vigil speakers, some of whom urged attendees to stop paying taxes to a government they said fostered a “Zionist movement.”

The comments drew head shakes and muttering from several vigil attendees, some of whom walked out of the event.

Mayor Peter Nystrom noted the vigil came at a time when “hearts were heavy” and prayed for a swift end to the overseas violence.

“We’re only here a short time, so I think it’s important to recognize we’re all part of one race ― the human race,” he said.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said despite peace being the preferred hope for most, others choose to “disturb that peace with violence.”

“We will stand in peace today and we will not allow others to divide us with their hate,” she said.

j.penney@theday.com