Still traumatized, fighting on several fronts, Israel commemorates Monday the unprecedented attack ;tooth of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its territory on October 7, 2023, which has triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. In Reim, at the site of the Nova music festival where at least 370 people were killed , a gathered crowd kicked off the ceremonies with a minute's silence at exactly 06:29 (03:29 GMT), the time Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the ceremony with the victims' families, most of whom were in tears, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene. Just minutes after the ceremony began, at least four projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, the army said, with three intercepted while the fourth fell in an uninhabited area. Later in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the nation. Other rallies are planned in Tel Aviv and Nir Oz, a kibbutz where some 30 residents were killed and more than 70 taken hostage and taken to Gaza. Elsewhere, from Sydney to Berlin, from Buenos Aires to New York, many rallies and ceremonies will mark the anniversary of this surprise offensive which left 1,205 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, 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 on Sunday evening, lighting candles and praying around an improvised altar. – “Atrocious massacre” – “Coming here, a year after this atrocious massacre, is deeply moving,” said Solly Laniado, one of the organizers of the tribute, in Tel Aviv. “We don't know how to find the words. We're afraid we'll burst into tears.” On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza entered southern Israel, using explosives and bulldozers to breach the barrier surrounding the Palestinian territory, killing indiscriminately in kibbutzim, military bases and at the Nova festival site. 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. Palestinian women come to identify victims of an Israeli strike on a mosque transformed into a shelter for displaced people in Deir al-Balah, October 6, 2024 © AFP – BASHAR TALEB Since then, entire sectors of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble, almost all of its 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war and at least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed there, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. After weakening the Palestinian Islamist movement, the Israeli army moved most of its operations in mid-September to the northern front, where the Lebanese Hezbollah has been increasing its rocket fire towards Israel for the past year. On Sunday evening, after a new call to evacuate launched by the Israeli army to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese news agency ANI reported four airstrikes in this sector, a Hezbollah stronghold pounded in recent days by Israel. Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than a thousand since the intensification of Israeli bombardments on September 23, according to the authorities. About 1.2 million people have been displaced. Israel has vowed to fight the powerful Lebanese armed movement until “victory” in order to allow the return to the border regions of the 60,000 residents displaced by the incessant rocket fire. – State of alert – The Israeli army has been on alert since Saturday, fearing attacks before the anniversary of October 7. 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 the police. The Israeli army also announced on Monday the death in combat of one of its soldiers near the border Lebanese. After a year of war and the failure of all attempts at mediation, the Israeli offensive also continues in Gaza. Early Monday morning, the Israeli army said it had struck the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the territory, which it said housed Hamas command centers. On Sunday, still in Deir al-Balah, at least 26 people were killed in strikes on a mosque and a school hosting displaced people, according to the Hamas Health Ministry. A Palestinian family arrives in Gaza City after leaving the Jabalia area on October 6, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA And in the north of the territory, Israel had announced that it was “surrounding” the Jabalia area, claiming that Hamas was “rebuilding its forces” there, and had carried out airstrikes against “dozens of targets”. According to the Gaza Civil Defense, 17 people including nine children died. – “The world has stopped – “If I had known that the war would last a whole year, I would never have left northern Gaza,” Mona Abou Nahl, 51, displaced in Deir al-Balah, told AFP. “We no longer have the energy to endure all this… I would have put a tent over my destroyed house and sat down, rather than endure this humiliation, hunger and displacement,” she complains. A camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, on October 6, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB “We feel like the world stopped on October 7,” says another displaced person, Israa Abou Matar, 26. “I am growing old seeing my children starving, frightened, having nightmares and screaming day and night because of the noise of the bombings.” In a video message Sunday, Hamas hailed its “glorious” attack a year ago, which it said “shattered the illusions the enemy had created for itself, convincing the world and the region of its superiority and 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. All reproduction and representation rights reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse
By Teilor Stone
Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116