Photo: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally Saturday in Pershing Square in Los Angeles to protest Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and Lebanon. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
People around the world were holding vigils, ceremonies and protests to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, as fighting raged on in the enclave on Monday.
The militants killed some 1,139 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza on Oct. 7 last year, according to Israeli figures. Nearly 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to Palestinian health authorities, and most of the 2.3-million population has been displaced.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held in cities from Jakarta to Istanbul to Buenos Aires on Sunday, following protests on Saturday in European capitals as well as Washington and New York.
ISRAEL
Ceremonies and protests in Israel began about 6:29 a.m., the hour when Hamas-led militants launched rockets into Israel at the start of the Oct. 7 attack last year.
“We remember our fallen, our hostages that we are obliged to return,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while lighting candles at Jerusalem’s Swords of Iron memorial.
Outside his home, around 300 people led by families of hostages holding up photos of their loved ones observed a minute of silence for the dead as a siren sounded.
“We are changing the security reality in our region, for our children’s sake, for our future, to ensure that what happened on Oct. 7 does not happen again,” Netanyahu said at a special cabinet meeting in Jerusalem marking the Gaza war anniversary.
At the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of partygoers and staff were killed and scores of others taken hostage, President Isaac Herzog joined grieving families and friends.
Mourners listened to the last track that was played before it was stopped abruptly, just as it did a year ago at sunrise. “This is where she was. This is where she was happy in the last of her moments,” said Anat Regev, the aunt of one of the festival-goers killed in the attack.
Families gathered in the ruins of Kibbutz Be’eri that was attacked on Oct. 7. “I see my brother’s house around the corner, and I’m still there, on that bloody day,” said Kobi Ben Ami, whose brother is still being held.
In Tel Aviv, people stood still while others blew the shofar – a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies – to mark the anniversary.
GAZA
No formal events were planned in Gaza on Monday. Israeli forces mounted air and ground offensives in several areas, saying they were attacking Hamas militants and command centres.
Hamas’ armed wing fired a missile salvo at Tel Aviv, the group said in a statement, with the Israeli military saying sirens were sounded in central Israel.
In a speech to mark the anniversary, Khaled Meshaal, who leads the group’s political office in exile in Qatar, urged Arab and Muslim countries to launch “new fronts of resistance” against Israel.
Gazans told Reuters they yearned to go back to their normal lives before the war.
“Before Oct. 7, one had dreams. As a father, I have six children, my biggest burden was how to provide them with homes and get them married. But after Oct. 7, this came to nothing. After 58 years of work for me, same as my father – all of it has gone to dust and rocks,” Abu Hassan Shaheen said.
UNITED STATES
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned what he called the “unspeakable brutality” of the Oct. 7 attack, paid tribute to the people including American citizens killed and kidnapped, and said he committed to Israel’s right to defend itself.
He added in a statement: “I believe that history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day … We will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris marked the anniversary at her Naval Observatory residence and planted a memorial tree along with her husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish.
The planting of a pomegranate tree represents hope and righteousness in Judaism, Harris told reporters. Vice presidents and their families have traditionally planted trees on the grounds of their official residence, the White House said.
Earlier on Monday, Harris said: “We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated.”
She added: “I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year – tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine.”
At Columbia University in New York, the starting point for last year’s national student-led protests, pro-Palestinian students chanted “Free Palestine” and waved Palestinian flags on the main plaza of the campus. A separate group of pro-Israel protesters gathered outside the campus – which was closed to visitors for security – holding Israeli flags and posters of the Hamas-held hostages. Vigils and protests were scheduled on other college campuses around the country.
A woman lights a candle during a commemoration of the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel at the the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary, October 7, 2024. REUTERS/Bernadet
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators were gathering across Manhattan, marching from Wall Street to Midtown in protest over the war.
CANADA
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned Hamas for its “horrifying attack against Israel,” noting that several Canadians were among the victims, and lamented what he called a “terrifying surge in antisemitism.”
“To Jewish people and Israelis in Canada and around the world: We stand with you on this painful anniversary,” he added in his statement.
In downtown Toronto, two groups, one carrying Palestinian flags and a smaller number with Israeli flags, gathered in Queen’s Park, where police kept them separate.
All of the Jewish organizations in Toronto, Canada, banded together for a community vigil at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s campus where up to 25,000 people are expected to mark one year since Hamas’ attack on Israel.
TURKEY
President Tayyip Erdogan focused on the plight of the Palestinians. “What is dying in Gaza, Palestine, and nowadays in Lebanon is not just women, children, babies, innocent civilians; it is humanity (and) the international system that is expected to serve humanity,” he wrote on X.
AUSTRALIA
At Sydney’s Bondi Beach, people holding Israeli and Australian flags listened in silence to a reading of the names of the hostages still held by Hamas.
BRITAIN
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement: “One year on from these horrific attacks we must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country.”
FRANCE
“France loves you,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told mourners at the Nova festival site. President Emmanuel Macron said on X: “The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity.”
THAILAND
In a church in northeastern Thailand, the Sriaoun family gathered on Sunday to pray for the safe return of their oldest son, Watchara Sriaoun, 32, one of six Thais still believed to be held captive by Hamas since the war began.
Reuters
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