REM, Israel (AP) – Israelis on Monday marked one year since the deadliest Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in the country’s history that sparked the war in Gaza and left indelible scars on Israelis. To commemorate the occasion, a vigil and solemn ceremony was held.
The sudden cross-border attack that struck Israel, unprepared for a major Jewish holiday, shattered Israelis’ sense of security and shook their trust in their leadership and military.
The aftershocks are still reverberating a year later. The war in Gaza has escalated, with Israel fighting a new war with Hezbollah, which launched an attack on Israel on October 8th. The conflict with Iran, which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, is also escalating and threatens to drag the region down. A much more dangerous conflagration.
No formal commemorative events are planned in Gaza, which is still bearing the weight of the ongoing war. The massive destruction and displacement is a constant reminder of Israel’s retaliatory attacks on the territory, with no end in sight.
Israelis flocked to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites across the country to remember the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still held captive, and the soldiers who were wounded or killed trying to rescue them. Ta.
At 6:29 a.m. — the exact moment Hamas launched its attack — the families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, said they were among about 400 revelers gunned down. Many others gathered at the scene where they were taken. hostage.
The same trance music played during the festival briefly played, after which hundreds of family members and friends of the victims stood for a moment of silence. Amid the roar of the fighting in Gaza just a few kilometers away, a woman’s sharp scream broke the silence.
“When we are here, we are close to our loved ones. Now is the time for them to dance away,” said Sigal Bar-on. Sigal Bar-on’s niece Yuval Bar-on, 25, and her fiancé Moshe Shuba, 34, were scheduled to marry in December 2023.
According to the Israeli military, at 6:31 a.m., four projectiles were fired from Gaza into the very Israeli communities that came under heavy attack last year. The ceremony was not interrupted.
To commemorate the moment the Hamas offensive began a year ago, the families of the hostages still held in Gaza (about 100 people, a third of whom are said to be dead) will be commemorating Benjamin. – They gathered near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood for a two-minute siren. It recreates the customs of Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day, the most solemn days on the Israeli calendar.
“We came here to remind (the hostages) that we haven’t forgotten,” said Siri Albag, whose daughter Lili was also among the prisoners. “We will not let you rest until every last man is back,” he told the crowd holding posters with the faces of the hostages.
A group representing the families of the hostages announced that another prisoner had died. Idan Štibi, 28, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival and was thought to be alive. Israeli media reported that he was killed during the attack and his body was taken to Gaza.
Flags will be lowered to half-mast at Israel’s parliament, and an official national ceremony highlighting acts of courage and hope will be broadcast on Monday night. The ceremony was pre-recorded without spectators, apparently to avoid potential unrest in the southern city of Ofakim, where more than 20 Israelis were killed.
But anger over the government’s failure to stop the attack and frustration over the government’s failure to return the remaining hostages became too much to bear, and families of those killed and captured held separate events in Tel Aviv. He urged them to hold the event.
The event was expected to draw tens of thousands of people, but was drastically scaled back after large gatherings were banned due to threats of missile attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.
The Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and dragged about 250 hostages into the Gaza Strip, continues to cast a shadow over daily life in Israel. For the dozens of hostages still held captive, there is no end in sight to their struggle. Border communities have been disrupted and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Soldiers are being killed in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel continues to face international criticism for its wartime actions, and two world tribunals are examining Israel’s actions.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, displaced much of the Strip’s population of 2.3 million, and triggered a humanitarian crisis that has led to widespread hunger. And small coastal enclaves have been left devastated beyond recognition as U.S.-led ceasefire efforts repeatedly fail.
___
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
___
Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-wars
