One year after October 7, leaders repeat their “horror”, others accuse Israel

A year later, leaders, particularly Western ones, have reiterated on Monday their “horror” at the memory of the “atrocious” attacks committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023 and their commitment to peace, as the plight of the Palestinians continues to spark protests around the world. < /p>

From Amsterdam to Tokyo, via Washington and Ankara, numerous statements as well as rallies with the Jewish community but also pro-Palestinian demonstrations have marked the anniversary of this day of massacres, the deadliest in the history of the Hebrew state.

It took the country by surprise on a Jewish religious holiday and led to the death of 1,205 people, followed by a devastating war by Israel in the Gaza Strip that left nearly 42,000 dead and the opening of another front in Lebanon in mid-September targeting the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

US President Joe Biden, whose country supplies weapons to Israel, said he was “totally committed” to “Israel's security”, while conceding that October 7 is also “a black day for the Palestinians because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”

“Israel will sooner or later pay the price for the genocide it has been committing for a year and is continuing,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a message posted on X.

Demonstrations in the Philippines to denounce Israel's military response to Gaza in Manila on October 7, 2024 © AFP – JAM STA ROSA

In several Asian countries, from the Philippines to India in particular, Palestinian flags and placards denouncing the martyrdom of Gaza were brandished by demonstrators.

And Pope Francis castigated “the shameful inability of the international community and the great powers” to obtain a ceasefire.

“A year ago, the fuse of hatred was lit. It has not gone out, but has flared up in a spiral of violence,” he lamented.

– “Spiral of violence” –

In London, the new British Prime Minister, Labour's Keir Starmer, spoke of a “day of pain and sorrow.”

In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the Great Synagogue of Rome and stressed that these ceremonies were “not a simple ritual” but a “prerequisite for bringing peace.” She expressed concern about what she called “latent and rampant” anti-Semitism.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy (center right) at a London synagogue on October 7, 2024 © POOL – Dan Kitwood

“A year after the horrific terrorist attacks of October 7, we do not forget,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed on X.

Spanish diplomacy reiterated “its firm condemnation of the atrocious terrorist attacks by Hamas” while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and a “two-state solution.”

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Remembrance ceremonies involving relatives of the victims of the attacks took place in Warsaw, Madrid and Bucharest.

In Warsaw, Yuval Dancyg, son of Alex Dancyg, 75, one of the hostages kidnapped from the left-wing kibbutz Nir OZ and then assassinated by Hamas, stressed that he had come for his father but also because it was necessary to “put the issue of hostages”.

In Madrid, a ceremony of about a hundred people brought together diplomats, members of the Jewish community and victims or their relatives, including Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, whose photo lying half-naked in the back of a van belonging to Hamas attackers went around the world. “This is a warning. If Israel falls, the Western world will fall,” he predicted.

“We share your pain,” tweeted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Hebrew, accompanying his message with a photo of the facade of the Chancellery in Berlin, displaying a drawing of the yellow ribbon that symbolizes solidarity with the hostages and their families.

In France, several ministers and some 4,000 people are expected Monday evening in Paris for a tribute ceremony organized by the Jewish community.

– “Scar on Humanity” –

“The pain remains as acute as it was a year ago,” President Emmanuel Macron stressed on X. The day before, after calling for a halt to some arms deliveries to Israel, he tried to dispel the unease with Israel.

Members of Australia's Jewish community gather for a remembrance ceremony in Sydney on October 7, 2024 © AFP – DAVID GRAY

His Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was in Reims on Monday.

“Force alone is not enough to guarantee Israel's security,” he declared at a press conference. “To finally bring the hostages back to their loved ones, to finally allow the displaced people of the North to return to their homes, after a year of war, the time for diplomacy has come,” he declared, after laying 48 white roses in memory of the 48 French victims.

Of the 251 people kidnapped, 97 are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom are considered dead by the Israeli authorities.

It was in Reim, on the site of a rave party in which at least 370 participants were massacred last year, that Israel began its ceremonies at 06:29 (03:29 GMT).

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot at the ceremony to honor Hamas victims near Reim in Israel, October 7, 2024 © AFP – AHMAD GHARABLI

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called on the world to “support Israel in its fight against its enemies.”

October 7 leaves “a scar on humanity,” he said, while Israel announced the deployment since Sunday of a third ground division in southern Lebanon.

Israel is changing the “reality” on the ground so that there will be no more October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added.

The October 7 attack brought Israel “back to square one and threatened its existence,” said a Hamas official and former leader, Khaled Meshaal, on Al Arabiya TV.

Lebanese Hezbollah, which Israel is fighting in Lebanon, said Monday that it would continue to fight Israel's “aggression,” which it called a “cancerous” entity that must eventually be “eliminated.”

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