It was a day of vigils.
Israelis gathered on Monday to mourn the anniversary of the deadliest day in the country’s history, the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre that set off the longest war that Israel has known, one that was still raging in Gaza and Lebanon amid the solemnity of Israel’s commemorations.
“That Saturday, we awoke to a different country, one which we had never known before,” Gali Idan, whose husband, Tzachi, is still held hostage in Gaza, told mourners at a ceremony for bereaved families in Tel Aviv. “It’s the same flag, the same people — but it’s not where we used to live.”
As dawn broke over the Re’im forest in southern Israel, the site of a music festival where hundreds were killed and many kidnapped during the attacks last October, a bereaved mother’s cries broke a minute of silence for the victims. Explosions a short distance away were audible as the Israeli military carried out airstrikes across the border in Gaza.
The backdrop to the vigils was the numbing numbers of lives lost over the past year: about 1,200 killed in Israel in the Oct. 7 attacks. More than 40,000 Palestinians killed during Israel’s counterattack in Gaza. The war counts as the deadliest in a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews, 12 months of profound loss and trauma for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Among those mourning in Re’im were Michael and Lisa Marlowe, who are from Britain and whose son, Jake Aaron Marlowe, 26, had moved to Israel and was working with an unarmed security team at the music festival when he was killed.
He was shot nine times, his father said. Now, Mr. Marlowe said, “I grieve constantly.”
In Gaza, Palestinians are looking back on a year of unparalleled loss: homes destroyed, livelihoods upended, relationships interrupted, loved ones killed. All of the more than two million people in the territory have been affected.
“We were so happy before this war,” said Maisaa al-Naffar, 20, recalling her first few weeks as a newlywed last year. “I am not the person I used to be.”
The siege of Gaza has left more than two million residents entirely dependent on halting shipments of humanitarian aid. Desperation can be seen in nearly every corner of the enclave. People roam the streets with empty pots and buckets looking for hot meals, and children sift through trash and rubble searching for anything to eat.
“Today is an anniversary of sadness and tragedy for us,” said Omar al-Jamal, a 33-year-old math teacher from the southern city of Rafah in Gaza. “Pain, trauma, and losses are in every single home,” he said. “We have no meaning to anything in life except waiting for a cease-fire and an end to this horrible war.”
In Israel, the government held an official commemoration late on Monday. In a video statement broadcast at the ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel reiterated his commitment to the campaign’s stated aims of toppling Hamas’s rule in Gaza and bringing home the remaining hostages.
And he vowed to continue the war.
“As long as the enemy threatens our existence and our country’s peace,” he said in the video, “we will keep fighting. As long as our hostages are in Gaza, we will keep fighting.” He added, “And together we will win.”
Distinct from that event, hundreds of Israelis gathered in a park in Tel Aviv for an alternative ceremony organized by families of those taken hostage and those killed during the attacks. Many of the survivors of the massacres in the kibbutzim boycotted the government-backed event.
Many of the families blame the Israeli government for failing to prevent the attack and for failing to bring home their loved ones held hostage in Gaza. Of the 250 abducted on Oct. 7, about 100 Israelis remain captive in the enclave, including dozens believed to be dead.
Among Israelis, the trauma of Oct. 7 has given fresh momentum to the argument that there is no peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After an initial burst of unity, Israeli society has become deeply polarized over whether the government should focus on defeating Hamas or agree to a compromise that would free the remaining hostages at the expense of allowing the Iranian-backed militant group to retain control of Gaza.
Family members of some hostages say that Mr. Netanyahu has prioritized his own political survival above the lives of the captives. His far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse the government if Mr. Netanyahu agrees to a deal that would free the abductees in exchange for ending the war. Mr. Netanyahu says he is acting with the country’s interests at heart.
President Biden offered a full-throated defense of Israel, condemning the “unspeakable brutality” of the Oct. 7 attacks and saying in a statement that he was committed to Israel’s security and supported its right to self-defense.
“The October 7th attack brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of hatred and violence against the Jewish people,” the president said. His statement also bemoaned the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in the war, calling it “a human toll made far worse by terrorists hiding and operating among innocent people.”
Across Europe, leaders commemorated the anniversary with messages expressing grief while signaling concern or alarm for the death, suffering and displacement in Gaza.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said during a conference in Hamburg on Monday: “Dear friends in Israel, We share with you the horror, the pain, the uncertainty and the grief. We stand by your side.” He also spoke of the “unimaginable” suffering by Palestinians in the past year.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain noted in statement that Oct. 7 was the “darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust,” adding, “We must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country.”
In a park outside the alternative memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv, Chai Gutt, 56, a resident of a nearby Tel Aviv suburb, said he had been turning the events of Oct. 7 over in his mind all day. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of grappling with the legacy of that day, he said, was that the traumatic consequences were still very much present.
“We’re remembering something that is still ongoing,” said Mr. Gutt. “It’s something that happened yesterday, is still happening today, and will unfortunately continue tomorrow.”
Inside the Tel Aviv ceremony, Nitza Korngold, who said seven relatives had been abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, called out to her son Tal Shoham, who is still a hostage in Gaza.
“My dear Tal, if you can see or hear me, we all miss you so much,” she said. “We are doing everything to bring you and all the hostages home soon. We will not give up on you.”
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