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full screenPeople visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of people were killed during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The picture was taken on the anniversary of the attack. Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP/TT
A year has passed since Hamas surprisingly attacked Israel.
Today, the memory of over 1,100 victims of the 7 October attack – and those who were held hostage by Hamas for a whole year – is commemorated.
At 6:29 a.m., the time Hamas launched its attack on Israel a year ago, President Isaac Herzog opened the day’s ceremonies with a minute’s silence at Kibbutz Re’im. Right next to the kibbutz, hundreds of mainly young Israelis and foreign visitors to the Nova music festival were killed during the October 7 attack.
At the same time, hundreds of Israelis gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem demanding a ceasefire and a hostage deal, The Times of Israel reports.
“We were alone”
– It has been a nightmare year, said Eli Albag, whose daughter Liri is still being held by Hamas in Gaza, in a speech to the gathered crowd.
– Time has frozen for me, said Niva Wenkert, whose son Omer also remains in Gaza.
In Kfar Aza near the Gaza border, a memorial service was held early in the morning. In front of a poster of hostage kibbutz residents, Rachel Stellman looked back at that fateful morning a year ago.
– It was difficult to understand. I began to realize that no one would help us, we were alone – wounded, slaughtered, abandoned and begging for help. There was no rescue.
The hostage was already killed on October 7
The ceremony in Kfar Aza had to be interrupted when air raid sirens sounded after Hamas once again fired rockets at Israel. Those who gathered had to flee to shelters.
During the anniversary, the victims of the 7 October attacks will be honored in a series of different ceremonies in different cities in Israel. Over 1,100 people were killed in the attacks and more than 200 were taken hostage. Barely 100 of them remain in Gaza, but how many are alive is unclear.
On Monday, it was announced that one of them, 28-year-old Idan Shtivi, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, was already killed on October 7.