Words fail: A year since the 7 October massacre

Words fail. More than a year has passed since the 7 October massacre. Countless articles written, news reports aired, witnesses interviewed, and yet there are no words that truly capture the horrors of that day.

When heavily armed terrorists invade small communities to torture, mutilate, murder, and burn innocent civilians alive, what adjectives could depict these acts? When young women and men are hunted down at a music festival, only to be shot, raped, and taken hostage, is there an accurate term for this depravity? When little children and the elderly are taken hostage, dragged to an unimaginable fate in Hamas’s terror tunnels, does the vocabulary exist to express that inhumanity?

Words fail. Numbers might provide more clarity.

Early in the morning of 7 October, approximately 6,000 Hamas terrorists and their abettors crossed into southern Israel. During the brutal rampage, almost 1,200 people were slaughtered and 251 were taken hostage.

Still, dry statistics cannot explain the scale of this unprecedented terrorist attack or describe its effects on the Israeli people.

Numbers fail. Images may offer authentic testimony.

Photos and videos, often taken by the terrorists themselves, created some of the most horrifying and heartbreaking accounts of the massacre. All too many families learned the fate of a loved one through these images or from text messages and recordings sent as they were about to die.

In the past, Israel did not distribute graphic images of victims of terrorism out of respect for the dead but changed its policy post-7 October. It was a difficult but necessary decision, taken in response to a concerted effort to deny even basic facts about the carnage carried out that day.

Massacre-denial is an integral component of the campaign to minimize the danger Hamas and its allies pose to Israel. This political, legal and cognitive offensive, whose ultimate goal is to deny Israel the right to defend itself, has also fed into the wave of antisemitism that shockingly swept across much of the globe in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s attack.

7 October did not end on 7 October. The nightmare continues minute after minute, day after interminable day for the 101 women, men and children still held hostage in Gaza under horrendous conditions. Their families’ torment — worsened by evidence of vicious abuse and the recent execution of six hostages — is unfathomable.

For other Israelis, 7 October continues, including those recovering from their wounds and the tens of thousands waiting to return to their damaged and targeted homes in both southern and northern Israel. Hearts across the country bleed every time the news of another dead soldier or murdered hostage is released.

Not only did the attack on Israel not end that day, it expanded.

As Hamas continued to fire on Israel, Iran and its proxies joined in, beginning on 8 October when Hezbollah launched the first of over 9,000 rockets and missiles at Israel. These ongoing acts of aggression have undermined stability across the Middle East.

This war never needed to have happened. After Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas decided to transform the area into a terror base with the goal of destroying the Jewish state and replacing it with a caliphate.

Moreover, hostilities could cease immediately but Hamas refuses to lay down its arms and release the hostages, which would save lives on both sides. Guided by religious extremism, Hamas has vowed to repeat the massacre, while it was recently revealed that Hezbollah was planning a 7 October-style attack on northern Israel.

Words fail. Numbers fail. Images fail. But one thing will neither falter nor fail: Israel’s determination to prevent a repeat of Hamas’s atrocities.

On 27 October, the government of the State of Israel has declared a National Day of Mourning to honor the innocent lives tragically taken in the brutal attacks by Hamas terrorists on 7 October.

In solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people, we invite everyone to light a candle, lower the Israeli flag to half-mast, and offer prayers for the lives lost. As we remember them, let us stand together for peace, unity and hope.

There is no way to turn back time but it is possible to prevent future attacks. For now, 7 October should be commemorated by standing up for the truth, honoring the victims, heroes, and survivors, and most importantly, fighting for the release of the hostages.