A pair of cyclists undertaking a cross-country Ride Against War on Gaza stopped in Lockport on Wednesday to talk up their cause while refueling at Scripts Cafe.
Bob Sanders, 70, of New Hampshire, and Naor Deleanu, 32, of California, are the riders in the awareness tour backed by the RAW GAZA cycling group and Peace Action.
Both Jewish, they are staunchly opposed to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
As of Aug. 6, 2025, in the Gaza Strip, more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed, and about 151,500 more have been injured in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to statista.com. Last week the United Nations reported on a “dire” humanitarian situation in Gaza, stating starvation and malnutrition are at the highest levels since the war began. Israeli airstrikes destroyed the food infrastructure in Gaza and an Israeli blockade prevents humanitarian aid from entering the strip.
Sanders, a retired reporter for the New Hampshire Business Review, undertook the Ride Against War on Gaza to protest what’s happening there and, along the way, remind people that “Jewish” and “Israeli” are not synonymous.
“I was very upset with Israel’s reaction to the October 7 attacks. … It’s so much worse, 50 times worse, getting to be 60 times worse,” Sanders said. “Jews especially should speak out, considering what happened to us as a people” during the Holocaust. “To nearly wipe out an entire people, their culture, their infrastructure, I just can’t find the words… .”
Israel was founded as a safe haven for Jews after World War II, and today its government is making Jews unsafe, Sanders went on to say. “I think Jews are being used. Part of this ride is to say, ‘we don’t want to be used.’”
Deleanu and Sanders were unacquainted when they set out on the Ride Against War on Gaza. At home in California, Deleanu is involved with Friends of Standing Together, U.S.-based supporters of the Israeli grassroots movement that brings together Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel to press for peace and social justice. Sanders planned to begin his ride May 30 in San Francisco, following a peace rally a few days earlier. Deleanu went to that rally, met up with Sanders and decided to join him on the ride.
Deleanu, who bikes just about everywhere, said it’s his first “long tour” and it’s for a cause he believes in. Most of his family, including his mother, reside in Israel.
The war on Gaza “isn’t making my family safer,” he said. “War is killing people, not saving lives.”
For Sanders, the ride has ended up not being cross-country. In mid June, he said, his trip was “interrupted by a Jeep” that accidentally struck him in Idaho. While he didn’t sustain any broken bones, he had to return home to New Hampshire for about a month to recover, then resumed the ride at Mankato, Minnesota, on July 20. “I skipped about 1,000 miles, so it’s not a true cross country ride,” he said.
Throughout the ride, Sanders and Deleanu have stopped over in cities where rallies or gatherings were planned and one or both of them were invited to be speakers. To get from an event Tuesday in Buffalo to another event planned today in Rochester, they’re following the Erie Canalway Trail. On Wednesday, they headed downtown to grab lunch and refill their water bottles, and got a referral to Scripts for good sandwiches.
Sanders will finish the ride at Port Smith, New Hampshire, on Labor Day. Deleanu said he plans to head to Boston and a few other cities he’s never visited before.
Their Ride Against War On Gaza can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and the website nhpeaceaction.org. Through New Hampshire Peace Action, supporters can make donations to the American Friends Service Committee’s Gaza Emergency Relief Fund, Peace Action and the Jewish peace group Not In My Name NH.