Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas attack

Still traumatized, fighting on several fronts, Israel commemorates on Monday the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its territory on October 7, 2023 which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

In Israel, a ceremony will take place at the site of the Nova music festival, where at least 370 people were killed by Hamas fighters. The area remained largely intact, with dozens of charred vehicles and tents, sleeping bags and clothing scattered across the fields.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the nation, and President Isaac Herzog will participate in a commemoration in Sderot, in the south of the country. Other gatherings are planned in Tel Aviv or in Nir Oz, a kibbutz where around thirty residents were killed and more than 70 taken hostage and taken to Gaza.

Elsewhere, from Sydney to Berlin, from Buenos Aires to New York, numerous gatherings or ceremonies will mark the anniversary of this surprise offensive which left 1,205 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures. Israelis, including hostages who died in captivity.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people have already demonstrated across the world, whether to pay tribute to the victims of October 7 or in support of the Palestinians after a year of bloody war in the Gaza Strip.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered Sunday evening, lighting candles and praying around a makeshift altar. “Coming here, a year after this atrocious massacre, is deeply moving,” Solly Laniado, one of the organizers of the tribute, told Tel Aviv. “We don’t know how to find the words. We are afraid of bursting into tears.”

On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza entered southern Israel, using explosives and bulldozers to cross the barrier surrounding the Palestinian territory, killing indiscriminately in kibbutzim, military bases and on the Nova festival website.

In the following hours, the Israeli army launched a powerful offensive against the Palestinian territory with the aim of destroying Hamas, in power since 2007.

Since then, entire sectors of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to ruins, almost all of its 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war and at least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed, the majority civilians. , according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.

After weakening the Palestinian Islamist movement, the Israeli army shifted most of its operations in mid-September to the northern front, where Lebanese Hezbollah has been increasing rocket fire towards Israel for a year.

Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than a thousand since the intensification of Israeli bombings on September 23, according to the authorities. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced.

Israel has promised to fight the powerful Lebanese armed movement until “victory”, in order to allow the return to the border regions of the 60,000 inhabitants displaced by incessant rocket fire.

The Israeli army has been on alert since Saturday, for fear of attacks before the October 7 anniversary. A 25-year-old Israeli policewoman was killed and ten people injured on Sunday in Beersheva, in the south of the country, in a shooting attack in which the perpetrator was shot dead, according to police.

After a year of war and the failure of all attempts at mediation, the Israeli offensive also continues in Gaza. “If I had known that the war was going to last a whole year, I would never have left northern Gaza,” Mona Abou Nahl, 51, displaced in Deir al-Balah, told AFP.

In a video message on Sunday, Hamas praised its “glorious” attack a year ago which it said “shattered the illusions that the enemy had created for itself, convincing the world and the region of its superiority and its supposed capabilities.

The war in Gaza and Lebanon is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, which fired 200 missiles into Israeli territory on Tuesday. On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatened Iran with strikes similar to those targeting Gaza and Lebanon. Tehran said it was “ready” to retaliate, according to the Tasnim agency, citing a military source.