Israel commemorates this Monday the first anniversary of the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023with vigils in honor of the victims and demonstrations to demand the return of the hostages.
In addition, from Sydney to Berlin and from Buenos Aires to New York, rallies or ceremonies will be held to mark the anniversary of the attack by Hamas (classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, among others), which sparked the current war in the Gaza Strip.
In total 1,205 people died, mostly civiliansaccording to a count by the AFP agency based on official Israeli figures.
The Islamists also captured 251 people, of whom 101 remain captive in Gaza and 34 of them have died, according to the Army.
The commemorations began in Reimthe site of the Nova music festival, where at least 370 people were killed, with a minute of silence at 06:29 (03:29 GMT), the exact time the worst attack in Israel’s recent history began.
The site remains largely intact, with dozens of burned-out vehicles, tents, sleeping bags and clothing scattered across the countryside.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, present in Reim with families of the victims, He urged the world to “stand with Israel” to achieve peace.
Shortly after the start of the ceremony, four missiles were launched from Gaza, three of which were intercepted and another fell in a depopulated area, the Israeli army said. Air raid sirens also sounded in Tel Aviv after rockets launched from the Palestinian territory.
The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for these shots.
Also in the city of Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages and sympathizers gathered before dawn to ask for the return of their loved ones, carrying banners and posters with their photographs.
Hamas terrorist attack and Israel’s response with an offensive in Gaza
On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza entered southern Israel. They used explosives and bulldozers to breach the barrier surrounding Palestinian territory and killed indiscriminately in kibbutzim, military bases and at the site of the Nova festival.
In response, the Israeli Army launched a powerful offensive against the Gaza Strip with the aim of destroying Hamas.
Since then, at least 41,870 Palestinians have diedmostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory, governed by Hamas since 2007, which the UN considers reliable.
In Lebanon, the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in the south, on the border between both countries, on October 8, 2023, in support of its ally Hamas.
Since mid-September, Israel has shifted the bulk of its military operations to the northon the border with Lebanon, with the aim of stopping Hezbollah’s rocket fire and allowing thousands of northerners to return home.
The Israeli Army reported Monday that it deployed a third division to participate in operations in Lebanon.
Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, more than a thousand of them since Israeli bombing intensified on September 23, according to authorities. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced.
Hezbollah called Israel a “cancerous entity” that must be “eliminated”
Hezbollah promised to continue fighting Israel’s “aggression” and called the country a “cancerous entity” that must be “eliminated”. The powerful militia claims that it opened the front against Israel to “defend Lebanon,” although it acknowledged that it has paid “a high price.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza continues despite multiple attempts to reach a ceasefire.
Despite the destruction and the dead, Hamas celebrated the October 7 attackwhich according to a senior member of the group “threatened the existence” of Israel.
The Israeli military said early Monday that it had bombed the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, after claiming it housed Hamas command centers.
In the same city, At least 26 people died in the bombing of a mosque and a school that housed displaced people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Reactions on the anniversary of Hamas attacks against Israel
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, expressed yesterday, Sunday (10/6/2024), his commitment to a ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip, a consequence of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 a year ago, in order to free the Israeli hostages and stop the escalation of war in the Middle East.
“The federal government insists on defending a ceasefire that must materialize definitively for the protection of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and so that it can be better supplied, and also so that the Israeli kidnapped people can finally be released,” Scholz said in a message on his social networks.
The acting Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo, called this Monday for “a ceasefire on all fronts”, coinciding with the anniversary of the terrorist attack by the Islamist group Hamas against Israel and the subsequent Tel Aviv offensive on Gaza, Lebanon and other points in the region.
“It is time for a ceasefire on all fronts”stated the liberal De Croo in his account on the X platform.
The acting Prime Minister of Belgium also expressed his solidarity with the “victims of the terrible terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel that occurred last year” and reiterated Brussels’ call “for the release of all hostages.”
“Innocent civilians have suffered too much and human rights must be respected,” he added.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, estimated this Monday that “the pain is still as vivid a year after” the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel.
“The pain is still just as raw a year later. That of the Israeli people, ours, that of wounded humanity,” Macron wrote on the social network .
Macron sparked controversy on Saturday by calling for countries to stop “delivering weapons.” [a Israel] to fight in Gaza” and thus facilitate a “political solution.” But on Sunday, in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he reaffirmed France’s “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, considers that Israel’s accusation, which believes that Spain “has become a paradise to sow hatred and incite the destruction” of that country, is “out of place” and It urges that if it is thought that there has been anti-Semitism in any protest against the war, it be reported as a hate crime to the Prosecutor’s Office.
“That statement is out of place: Spain is a country of tolerance”It is a country where one can live in freedom and have freedom of expression and where any form of incitement to hatred and, of course, anti-Semitism are not only widely rejected by all of Spanish society, but are also in the Penal Code.” , stated the minister in an interview with TVE.
Albares took the opportunity to “strongly” condemn the “brutal terrorist attack by Hamas,” but also rejected the subsequent Israeli response and stressed that Spain’s official position is “to end the war,” “this horrible war that is claiming thousands.” and thousands and thousands of innocent lives, first in Gaza of Palestinians and now in Lebanon,” he defended.
Demonstrations around the world
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated last weekend around the world to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, and the return of Israeli hostages, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Pro-Palestinian sympathizers took to the streets in cities on five continents to demand an end to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
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