Israelis were holding vigils and somber ceremonies on Monday to mark a year since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the deadliest in the country’s history, which sparked the war in Gaza and scarred Israelis indelibly.
The surprise cross-border attack, which caught Israel unprepared on a major Jewish holiday, shattered Israelis’ sense of security and shook their faith in their leaders and their military.
Its aftershocks still ripple one year later. The war in Gaza rages on and Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel on Oct. 8. There is also an escalating conflict with Iran which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups that threatens to drag the region into a far more dangerous conflagration.
And on Monday, Hamas showed that it was still putting up a fight. It launched rockets that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, as well as closer to the Gaza border.
In Gaza, which is still buckling under the weight of the ongoing war, no formal commemorative event is planned. The massive destruction and displacement are a constant reminder of the retaliatory Israeli assault on the territory, which has no end in sight.
Israelis were flocking to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites around the country, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity and the soldiers wounded or killed trying to save them.
At 6:29 a.m. the exact minute Hamas launched its attack the families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where almost 400 revelers were gunned down and from where many others were taken hostage.
After briefly playing the same trance music that was blared during the festival, hundreds of family members and friends of the victims stood for a moment of silence. One woman’s piercing wail broke the silence as booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers away.
“When we are here, we are near our loved ones. This is the time they danced and fled,” said Sigal Bar-On, whose niece, Yuval Bar-On, 25, and her fiancé Moshe Shuva, 34, were supposed to get married in December 2023. (AP)