Israelis have held sombre ceremonies to mark one 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.
Hamas marked the anniversary of its October 7 attack by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv, underlining its resilience after a year of war and devastation which has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead in Gaza.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israel on October 8 last year in support of its ally Hamas, vowed to keep up the barrages despite its recent losses.
The surprise cross-border attack one year ago – which caught Israelis unprepared on a major Jewish holiday – shook their faith in their leaders and their military, and its aftershocks are still rippling across the region.
Around 100 hostages captured that day have not been returned, a third of whom are believed to be dead, and ceasefire efforts have ground to a halt.
The war in Gaza rages on and Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah. Meanwhile, there is also an escalating conflict with Iran – which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah – threatening to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.
No formal commemorative event is planned in Gaza, where fighting is still under way, huge areas have been completely destroyed and most of the population have been driven from their homes.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed at least 10 firefighters, the latest in a series of strikes that have killed dozens of first responders, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
It said they were in a municipality building in the southern town of Baraachit that was hit as they prepared for a mission.
🚨Sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and central Israel exactly a year after the October 7 massacre🚨 pic.twitter.com/FuvmoKBRVm
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 7, 2024
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
And an Israeli airstrike demolished a residential building and partly destroyed another in a village in the mountains southeast of Beirut, killing seven people, including three children.
Mahmoud Nasr Eldin, Qmatiyeh’s deputy mayor, said the village contains “no security or military centres”.
“There’s nothing in Qmatiyeh that they’re looking for — it’s a safe area,” he said. “We welcomed around 15,000 internally displaced people. They are our people, they ran away from their villages and came to get protection here.”
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in a refugee camp, where the military said it opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones at its forces.
Meanwhile, 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. Commemorations were also planned across Europe and elsewhere.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted another 250.
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 revellers were killed and many others were taken hostage. As the sun rose, organisers played the same trance track that was abruptly halted when the barrage of rockets began.
At 6.29am local time (4.29am BST) – the exact minute Hamas launched its attack – the crowd observed a moment of silence. A woman’s piercing wail broke the quiet, while booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few miles away.
At 6.31am, four projectiles were launched from Gaza toward the same communities that came under attack last year, without disrupting the ceremony.
The military said another five rockets were launched from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis toward central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv.
Two women were lightly wounded, according to first responders, and there was minor damage. The military said it had struck the launch sites.
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. In a speech addressing Mr Netanyahu, she said: “We wont let you rest until all of them are back, every last one of them.”
Mr Netanyahu, who has come under heavy criticism for the security lapses on October 7 and for not yet returning all the hostages, spoke at a small ceremony in Jerusalem, saying: “We went through a terrible massacre a year ago and we arose as a nation as lions.”
An official state ceremony is set to air on Monday. It was pre-recorded 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.
Anger at Mr Netanyahu’s government prompted families of those killed and taken captive to hold a separate event in Tel Aviv. That event had been set to draw tens of thousands of people but was scaled back due to the threat of missile attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.
Israel responded to the October 7 attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million people and caused widespread hunger.
Hamas remains in control of the territory and its forces have repeatedly regrouped in areas where Israel carried out major operations.
On Sunday, Israeli forces encircled the northern town of Jabaliya and launched another major operation there that the military says is aimed at rooting out militants.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets, missiles and drones at Israel even after a wave of Israeli strikes in recent weeks killed most of its top command – including long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah – and pounded large areas of Lebanon. Israel launched what has so far been a limited ground operation across the border last week.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.
Israel has also vowed to respond to a ballistic missile attack last week that Iran said was in response to the killing of Nasrallah, top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and one of its own Revolutionary Guard generals.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel “was and will remain a deadly, aggressive, cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes”.
Later on Monday it emerged that Israel’s defence minister is to travel to Washington this week for talks at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon’s spokesman, Major General Pat Ryder, announced the visit by Yoav Gallant on X, formerly Twitter, saying that Mr Gallant and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin would discuss “ongoing Middle East security developments”.
Mr Gallant’s office confirmed the scheduled visit but gave no further details.
Also in the US, the Treasury sanctioned three people in Europe, a charity group and a bank in Gaza, all accused of helping to bankroll militant group Hamas.
The Treasury says Hamas and its affiliates raise funds through sham charities and as of this year, the militant Palestinian group may have received as much as 10 million dollars (£7.6 million) a month through such donations.
Included in the sanctions are Mohammad Hannoun, an Italy-based Hamas member and his Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; Majed al-Zeer, a senior Hamas representative in Germany and Adel Doughman, who is in charge of Hamas activity in Austria. Additionally, Al-Intaj, an unlicensed Hamas-run bank in Gaza was sanctioned for allegedly providing services to Hamas.
