Israel marks a year since Hamas’ Oct 7 attack

 

 

 

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, Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, and an escalating conflict with Iran - which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah - threatens to drag the region into a far more dangerous conflagration. In Gaza, which is still buckling under the weight of the ongoing war, no formal commemorative event is planned.

 

he massive destruction and displacement are a constant reminder of the retaliatory Israeli assault on the territory, which has no end in sight. Israelis were expected to flock 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 6:30 a.m. - the exact hour Hamas launched its attack - the families of those killed at the Nova music festival were gathering at the site where almost 400 revellers were gunned down and from where many others were taken hostage. 

 

 

PALESTINIAN militants in Gaza fired four rockets into Israel on Monday as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct 7 attack, without disrupting a nearby ceremony. Hamas also said it attacked Israeli forces in different parts of Gaza. The Israeli military said three rockets were intercepted and a fourth fell in an open area. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it launched a wave of artillery and airstrikes overnight and into Monday to thwart an imminent attack. It said it targeted Hamas launch posts and underground militant infrastructure.

 

The fighting on the anniversary underscored the militants’ resilience in the face of a devastating Israeli offensive that has killed around 42,000 Palestinians, according to local medical officials. It has also destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population. Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed into nearby army bases and farming communities in a surprise attack one year ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding around 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has also vowed to strike Iran in response to a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week. ___ Hundreds gather at Nova music festival site to remember Oct 7 victims Re'im (Israel) Hundreds of families and friends of people killed at the Nova music festival gathered Monday at the site of the attack, where nearly 400 were gunned down during Hamas' Oct. 7 assault. Families gathered around photos of their loved ones, which were arranged in a semicircle around what was the DJ stage. Many lit candles and added mementos or photos, crying and embracing. Overhead, army helicopters circled and constant booms echoed across the area, causing many to flinch. “We can't understand how a year has passed,” said Shimon Busika, whose son, Yarden, 25, was killed at the festival. “It's the most natural place to be, to be here for this moment of silence,” he said.

 

Busika said it took them a long time, piecing together testimony from other survivors, to understand what happened in Yarden's last moments. They now know he was killed around 9:20 near a yellow container at the festival where many others were killed, and they will hold a second minute of silence there at the moment he was killed. The last sounds of the trance track that was playing at the Nova site on Oct. 7 one year ago stopped abruptly, as hundreds of family members and friends of the more than 300 victims stood in a moment of silence. One woman's piercing wail broke the silence as booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers (miles) away. 20 Indonesians who were evacuated from Lebanon arrive in Jakarta JAKARTA, Indonesia — Twenty Indonesian nationals and a Lebanese evacuated from Lebanon arrived in Jakarta on a commercial flight early Monday and will likely be followed by 20 more in the afternoon, officials said. President Joko Widodo has called to prioritize the evacuation of Indonesians in Lebanon as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalate and fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East grow.

 

“I have directed the foreign affairs minister to take immediate action to ensure the safety and protection of our citizens and expedite their evacuation,” Widodo said last week. Indonesia's Embassy in Beirut had prepared evacuation procedures for citizens as part of its contingency planning since August. The Embassy evacuated 25 Indonesian citizens who returned safely to Indonesia last month, said Judha Nugraha, Director of Indonesian Citizen Protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. There are 116 registered Indonesian citizens in Lebanon, most of them students, migrant workers and people married to Lebanese nationals. Many of them have chosen to remain there for various reasons, Nugraha said. Australian PM Albanese condemns Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel Canberra - Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Monday that the day carried “terrible pain” and his government “unequivocally” condemned Hamas' attack on Israel a year ago. Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on Oct. 7 a year ago, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack. Albanese said that since the attack, Jewish Australians have “felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day — and as a nation we say never again.” “We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith,” Albanese said. He added that “every innocent life matters” and the number of civilians killed in the conflict was “a devastating tragedy.” “Today we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people,” Albanese said. New Israeli strikes hit Beirut suburbs as Hezbollah claims blasts in Israel's Haifa Beirut — A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs late Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon. Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque in Gaza killed at least 19 people.

 

Rocket sirens and blasts were heard in Haifa in northern Israel late Sunday, and Hezbollah claimed the attack. Israel's military said at least five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon and “fallen projectiles” were found in the area. The military showed what appeared to be rubble along a street. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it was treating a teen with shrapnel injuries to the head and a man who fell from a window due to a blast. A year after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Israel has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has traded fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel also has vowed to strike Iran after a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.