Israel marks Hamas attack first anniversary

Israel marks Hamas attack first anniversary | Daily Tribune

Israel marks on Monday the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack, the worst in its history and one that sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has since expanded into Lebanon.

With troops fighting what Israel says is a war for its very existence, people gathered at vigils at massacre sites and rallies calling for the return of hostages still in Gaza a year on from their abduction.

The trauma of the 7 October attack, which killed 1,205 people according to official Israeli figures, is far from healed, and families of the dead attending a memorial cried as President Isaac Herzog met the crowd.

Herzog began the day with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. — the exact time the attack began — at Kibbutz Reim, the site of the Nova music festival where at least 370 people were killed by heavily armed Hamas fighters in the deadliest attack that day.

In the city of Tel Aviv, too, families of hostages and supporters rallied before dawn to call for the return of their loved ones, holding banners and placards bearing their pictures.

The anniversary comes with Israel still fighting in Gaza and engaged in a new war to the north in Lebanon against Hamas ally Hezbollah.

It is also preparing its retaliation against Iran over its missile attack last week, raising fears of all-out regional war.

Hamas and its Lebanese allies vowed to keep fighting, with the Palestinian militants describing their attack as “glorious” and Hezbollah branding Israel as a “cancerous” entity that must be “eliminated.”

Around the world, events were organized to pay tribute to the victims of Hamas’s attack and others to voice support for the Palestinian people after a year of war in the Gaza Strip.

“Coming to this event one year after this terrible massacre that happened on 7 October, it’s very touching,” said organizer Solly Laniado at a ceremony on Sunday in Tel Aviv to remember the victims of the Nova attack.

The Israeli army said Monday that at least four projectiles were fired from Gaza just minutes after the commemorations began, adding it had “struck Hamas launch posts and underground terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas’ armed wing said in a statement that its fighters had fired rockets at “enemy gatherings” near the border with Gaza.

It later said it had fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv.

The military said sirens sounded Monday in northern and central Israel, which has experienced daily rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza.

In a statement, Herzog said the world “must support Israel in its battle against its enemies.”

In the early hours of 7 October 2023, Hamas launched its attack by firing thousands of rockets towards Israeli border communities.

At the same time Hamas fighters stormed across the border and attacked nearly 50 different sites, including kibbutzim communities, army bases and the Nova music festival.

Militants killed festival-goers en masse and went door-to-door in farming communities, shooting residents dead in their homes.

Hours later, Israel launched a military offensive on Gaza that has reduced swathes of the territory to rubble, and displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million residents at least once amid an unrelenting humanitarian crisis.

Hamas’ attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.

Some 251 people were captured and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, of whom 97 are still held captive in the coastal territory, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

An Israeli campaign group on Monday announced the death of a hostage held in Gaza named Idan Shtivi, 28, who was abducted at the Nova festival.

In retaliation for the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and to bring home all the hostages.

“A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow. Over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,” Netanyahu said on Sunday during a visit to the Lebanon border.

With Israel expanding the focus of its war to Lebanon, Netanyahu has promised to ensure tens of thousands of Israelis forced to flee Hezbollah fire are able to return to their homes.

Since last month, Israel has conducted massive strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon and launched ground operations across the border.