By Samuel Timothy
HAMAS ATTACK: Israel marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s horrific October 7 attack on Monday by holding protests demanding the release of hostages and holding vigils at the locations of the atrocity.
Ceremonies and festivities are planned across Israel and in cities around the world to honor the anniversary of the extraordinary onslaught by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, which claimed 1,205 lives.At precisely 6:29 a.m. on October 7, President Isaac Herzog observed a moment of sorrow at Kibbutz Reim, the location of the Nova music festival, when at least 370 people were slain by highly armed Hamas fighters in the bloodiest attack to date.
As Herzog addressed the crowd, many of the grieving relatives of the deceased attended the memorial, according to an AFP correspondent.
Families of hostages and allies gathered in Tel Aviv prior to sunrise to demand the release of their loved ones, carrying posters and banners with their images on them.
Tens of thousands of people turned out for activities on Sunday in cities all around the world. Some of the gatherings were organized to honor the victims of Hamas’s attack, while others aimed to show support for the Palestinian people following a year of conflict in the Gaza Strip.
At a memorial on Sunday in Tel Aviv to honor the victims of the Nova attack, organizer Solly Laniado stated, “Coming to this event one year after this terrible massacre that happened on October 7 is very touching.”The anniversary comes at a time when Israel is still fighting in Gaza and engaged in a new war against Hamas ally Hezbollah in northern Lebanon.
Israel is also preparing to retaliate against Tehran for last week’s missile attack by Iran, raising fears of an all-out war in the region.
The Israeli military said Monday that at least four missiles were fired from Gaza minutes after the commemoration began.
The Hamas militant group said in a statement that it fired rockets at “enemy gatherings” at the Rafah crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing and Kibbutz Horit near the border with Gaza.
The military also said sirens sounded Monday morning in northern Israel, where rockets are fired daily from neighboring Lebanon.
Herzog said in a statement that the world “must support Israel in its fight against its enemies.”
In the early hours of October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack, firing thousands of rockets at Israeli border communities.
At the same time, Hamas fighters raided across the border, attacking nearly 50 locations, including the Kibbudim settlement, an army base, and the Nova Music Festival.
The militants killed a large number of festival attendees and went door to door in rural villages, shooting residents dead inside their homes.
Hours later, Israel launched a thorough military assault on Gaza, reducing much of the territory to rubble and displacing nearly all of its 2.4 million residents at least once in an unrelenting humanitarian crisis.
The Hamas offensive on October 7 killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest Israeli official figures.According to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza, 41,870 people, mostly civilians, have died since the war began. This figure is considered credible by the UN.
Despite the scale of destruction and casualties, the Hamas side on Sunday called the October 7 attack “glorious.” The Palestinians “made new history with their resistance,” they said.
On Monday, Hezbollah also vowed to continue its struggle against Israeli “aggression,” describing Israel as a “cancer” that must be “eliminated.”
On the ground, however, the people were eager for an end to the violence.
If I had known the war would last a year, I would never have moved out of northern Gaza,” Mona Abu Nahr, 51, told AFP in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.
I would have sat in a tent on top of my destroyed house rather than endure this humiliation, hunger, and displacement.
I feel like the world stopped on October 7,” said Israa Abu Matar, 26, another displaced person.
