One Year Later, Israelis Return to Music Festival Site

Nation marks a year since the Hamas assault
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 7, 2024 6:43 AM CDT
One Year Later, Israelis Return to Music Festival Site
People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.   (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israelis held somber ceremonies on Monday to mark a year since the deadliest attack in the country's history, a Hamas-led raid that shattered its sense of security and ignited wars on two fronts with no end in sight, per the AP. Hamas marked the anniversary of its Oct. 7, 2023, attack by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv, underscoring its resilience after a year of war and devastation in Gaza.

  • Israelis flocked to ceremonies, cemeteries, and memorial sites around the country, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity, and soldiers killed in battle. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 250. Around 100 hostages captured that day have not been returned, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

  • Before dawn, hundreds of families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where at least 364 revelers were killed and many others were taken hostage. As the sun rose, organizers played the same trance track that was abruptly halted when the barrage of rockets began. At 6:29am—the exact minute Hamas launched its attack—the crowd observed a moment of silence. One woman's piercing wail broke the quiet and booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few miles away.
  • Meanwhile, the families of hostages still held in Gaza gathered near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren. "We are here to remind (the hostages) that we haven't forgotten them," said Shiri Albag, whose daughter Liri is among the captives. Speaking before the crowd and addressing Netanyahu, she said: "We won't let you rest until all of them are back, every last one of them."

  • The flags at the Israeli Knesset were lowered to half-staff, and an official state ceremony is set to air on Monday evening. The ceremony was prerecorded without an audience—apparently to avoid potential disruptions—in the southern city of Ofakim, which was among several communities and army bases that were attacked a year ago.
  • The ensuing war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the territory's 2.3 million population, and sparked a humanitarian crisis that has led to widespread hunger. As the Gaza war rages on, Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. There is also an escalating conflict with Iran—which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah—that threatens to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.
(More Israel stories.)

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