Israel marks a year of deadly Hamas-led October 7 attack
Al Jazeera
Memorials and protests over fate of captives mark first anniversary of attack as fighting continues in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel is observing the first anniversary of a deadly attack inside its territory by the Palestinian group Hamas, a massacre that was followed by Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
President Isaac Herzog kicked off the commemorations on Monday, with memorials held to honour 1,139 Israelis and nearly 100 people still in captivity in Gaza.
Herzog began the day with a moment of silence at 6:29am (03:29 GMT) – the time the attack began exactly a year ago – at kibbutz Reim, the site of the Nova music festival where 364 people were killed by Hamas-led fighters.
After briefly playing the same trance music that was blared during the festival, hundreds of family members and friends of the victims stood for a moment of silence, many of them crying, as Herzog met the crowd.
“When we are here, we are near our loved ones, this is the time they danced and fled,” said Sigal Bar-On, whose niece, Yuval Bar-On, 25, and her fiance Moshe Shuva, 34, were supposed to get married in December last year.
