RE’IM, Israel (AP) — Israelis held solemn ceremonies on Monday to commemorate the first anniversary of the deadliest attack in the country’s history, a Hamas-led terrorist assault that shattered their sense of security and opened wars on two fronts that show no signs of ending.
The unexpected cross-border attack, which caught Israelis off guard on a major Jewish holiday, shook their faith in their leaders and their army, and its consequences still linger a year later. About 100 hostages captured that day—of which it is believed a third have died—remain unreleased, and efforts to seek a ceasefire are at a standstill.
The war in Gaza continues, Israel is waging a new war against Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel on October 8, and an escalating conflict with Iran - which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah - threatens to plunge the region into a much more dangerous conflagration.
Rockets from Gaza to Tel Aviv
On the other hand, Hamas marked the anniversary of their attack on October 7, 2023, by launching rockets at Tel Aviv, highlighting that they were still in combat after a year of war and devastation in Gaza.
The Army said that five rockets were fired from the southern Gazan city of Jan Yunis towards central Israel, triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv. According to emergency personnel, two women suffered minor injuries, and minor damages were reported. The Army stated that they had targeted the locations from where the projectiles were launched.
The Israelis demand the return of the hostages.
Israelis attended ceremonies, cemeteries, and monuments throughout the country in memory of the hundreds of victims, dozens of hostages still held captive, and the soldiers injured or fallen while trying to save them.
The militants led by Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the attack on October 7 and kidnapped another 250.
Before dawn, hundreds of relatives of those who died at the Nova music festival, along with the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where at least 364 attendees were shot dead and many others were captured. As the sun rose, the organizers played the same piece of music that was abruptly interrupted when the barrage of rockets began.
At 6:29 in the morning, just as the Hamas attack began, the attendees stood up and observed a moment of silence. The crying of a woman broke the silence as explosions from the fighting in Gaza could be heard, just a few kilometers away.
At 6:31 in the morning, four projectiles were launched from Gaza towards the same Israeli communities that suffered a harsh assault last year, according to the Israeli army. The ceremony was not interrupted.
Relatives of hostages still in Gaza gathered in the morning near the residence of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, and stood for two minutes while a siren sounded, a custom on the most solemn days in the Israeli calendar: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day.
"We are here to remind (the hostages) that we have not forgotten about them," said Shiri Albag, whose daughter, Liri, is among the captives. Albag had a message for Netanyahu, that "we will not let him rest until they are all back, until the last one," she told the crowd, who displayed signs with the faces of the hostages.
Netanyahu issued a statement paying tribute to the dead or captured and said, "A year ago we went through a terrible massacre and rose as a nation like lions."
The anger towards the government for not preventing the attack and the persistent frustration because they have not recovered the remaining hostages, led the families of several of the deceased and captured individuals to organize a separate event in Tel Aviv.
Hamas and Hezbollah promise to keep fighting
Hamas continues to control the territory of the Gaza Strip and its forces have repeatedly regrouped in areas where Israel has conducted large operations. Israeli troops surrounded the northern town of Jabaliya on Sunday and began another major operation there, which the Army says aims to expel the militants.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel even after a series of Israeli attacks in recent weeks that killed most of its top leadership, including its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah, and punished wide areas of Lebanon. Israel launched what is currently a limited ground operation on the other side of the border last week.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, at least 10 firefighters were killed in an Israeli attack, as part of a series of bombings that have killed dozens of emergency workers, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The firefighters were in a municipal building in the southern town of Baraachit that was hit while they were preparing to go out on a rescue mission.