CNN PRODUCER NOTE     iReporter and keen photographer Makandel heard about protests outside the White House in Washington DC over Gaza and arrived to find competing demonstrations between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian supporters. "It was very tense," he said. "When I got down there, there were about 200 pro-Israeli protesters and about 300 pro-Palestinian ones who had marched from the State Department plus a ton of police." He said that barriers put up by police prevented any scuffles between the two sides but there was, as he described it, some "back and forth" between them. "It got pretty hot," he said. Kandel feels that the current situation is "terrible" and that U.S. President Barack Obama should prioritise a long term solution to the conflict - but begin with stopping the current violence. "There must be some kind of intervention and it must be a priority but that's down the road -- right now people are dying and someone needs to step in," he said.
- sarahbrowngb, CNN iReport producer