Israelis hold vigils, ceremonies as they mark one-year anniversary of Hamas attack
Israelis are expected to flock to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites around the country today, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity and the soldiers wounded or killed trying to save them. The Associated Press reports:
At 6.30 am – the exact hour Hamas launched its attack – the families of those killed at the Nova music festival were gathering at the site where almost 400 revellers were gunned down and from where many others were taken hostage.
At that same time, the families of hostages still held in Gaza – about 100, a third of whom are said to be dead – were gathering outside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence to stand during a two-minute siren, replicating a custom from the the most solemn dates on the Israeli calendar, Holocaust Remembrance and Memorial Day.
An official state ceremony focusing on acts of bravery and hope is set to be aired on Monday evening. The ceremony was prerecorded without an audience – apparently to avoid potential disruptions – in the southern city of Ofakim, where over two dozen Israelis were killed.
But anger at the government’s failure to prevent the attack and enduring frustration that it has not returned the remaining hostages prompted the 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 drastically over prohibitions on large gatherings due to the threat of missile attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.
Key events
At least eight people have been killed in an Israeli air attack that targeted a fire station affiliated with the Islamic health authority in the southern Lebanese town of Baraachit, according to a report by Lebanon’s official national news agency.
‘Israeli aggression’ pushing region towards the ‘abyss’ of full-blown war, Jordan’s foreign minister warns
During a visit to Lebanon, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has warned that “Israeli aggression” was pushing the region towards the “abyss” of full-blown war.
“The Israeli aggression… which started in Gaza and now has continued into Lebanon is pushing the whole region into the abyss of full-blown regional war,” Safadi told a news conference in Beirut.
At the beginning of the year, Safadi voiced support for South Africa’s case against Israel in the international court of justice which accused the state of committing genocide in its war on Gaza. Safadi said Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide.
The Israel Defense Forces has called on residents of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate southward towards the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, where an estimated one million displaced people are sheltering.
“Israeli army forces are operating with intensity in the area,” the statement read.
Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million people fleeing to the south.
The Israeli military claims its forces are in Jabalia to fight Hamas militants, dismantle military infrastructure and prevent Hamas from regrouping. It was reported yesterday that the Israeli military had carried out intense bombardment of the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 17 people.
Al-Mawasi, which has also been the target of deadly Israeli airstrikes, is severely overcrowded and aid agencies struggle to provide even the most basic services. Palestinians are being told to evacuate there, even though it is not safe.
In May, an aid worker described to the Guardian the “horrific and dehumanising” conditions, with limited food, filthy and scarce water, overwhelmed healthcare facilities and almost no sanitation.
Another said the coast was “totally jam packed, with block after block of tents and only narrow gaps between them”.
“There is no infrastructure inside the camps and very limited new supplies getting in of course,” he said.
Two people were killed after Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Lebanese town of Qaliya in the western Bekaa valley, Lebanon’s state run national news agency has reported.
Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza – about 100, a third of whom are said to be dead – gathered near Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren, replicating a custom from Holocaust Remembrance and Memorial Day. Hamas kidnapped 251 people during the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks, according to Israel’s figures. Our video team has this report on the protest near Netanyahu’s residence:
Here is the official statement from Spain’s ministry of foreign affairs to mark the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage:
The government of Spain remembers and reiterates its most vehement condemnation of the atrocious Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 and expresses its solidarity with the families and friends of the victims.
It especially remembers Maya Villalobo and Iván Illaramendi, the two Spanish citizens who were killed during terrorist attacks.
One year on, the government expresses its solidarity with the relatives of the hostages who remain in captivity and demands their immediate release.
There needs to be a ceasefire, the release of hostages, access for humanitarian aid to civilians and an end to violence.
The government reiterates its determination to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination.
The government is committed to continuing working towards peace in the Middle East and to advancing the solution of two states living side-by-side in peace and security, which is the best guarantee of stability for everyone in the region.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 41,909, says health ministry
At least 41,909 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,303 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
Air raid sirens ring in several parts of northern Israel and in Tel Aviv
Air raid sirens were activated in central Israel on Monday after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, the army said. The Israel Defense Forces have also said air raid sirens have been ringing in some areas of northern Israel, including Dovev and Misgav Am, and in Tel Aviv. Earlier today, the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a post on Telegram it had hit Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets. There have not been any immediate reports of injuries.
Kim Willsher
Kim Willsher is a Guardian foreign correspondent based in Paris
French ministers including prime minister Michel Barnier and former president Nicolas Sarkozy will attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of October 7 on Monday evening.
Around 4,000 people are expected at the Dôme arena at the Porte de Versailles to mark the one year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel and show their support for the hostages still being held in Gaza.
The families of hostages will attend after a meeting with president Emmanuel Macron. France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, estimated to number around 500,000 people.
“October 7 was obviously an earthquake for Israel but it was also a shock in France,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council for Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), said. He added that he was dismayed by the surge in antisemitism in France over the last year. A total of 887 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2024, according to the interior ministry.
Monday’s event marking October 7 comes days after Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), called on university students to “put Palestinian flags everywhere if possible” in response to a memo from higher education minister Patrick Hetzel calling on universities to “keep order” on the one year anniversary of the Hamas attacks.
Arfi accused LFI of stoking antisemitism in France having “hysterically forced the public debate around the issue of Gaza”. He said Mélenchon had given “political backing” to antisemitism.
On Saturday, Macron called for a halt on the delivery of arms to Israel that could be used in Gaza, provoking an angry response from Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
New Israeli military division sent to Lebanon, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said another division was deployed yesterday for “localised operations” in southern Lebanon.
This division is reportedly the third troop grouping at division strength to be used in Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, which was launched a week ago when several areas in the south of the country were told to evacuate.
“The soldiers of the 91st division began localised and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon,” a statement from the Israeli army read.
More than 2,000 Lebanese people have been killed and more than 9,500 injured since 23 September 2024, when Israel started an intense aerial bombing campaign in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley.