Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group marks the anniversary by saying it has entered the war in solidarity with Hamas
Published : 07 Oct 2024, 11:21 PM
People around the world held vigils, ceremonies and protests to mark Monday's first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, as fighting raged on in the enclave.
The militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza on Oct. 7 last year, according to Israeli figures. Nearly 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, and most of the 2.3-million-strong population displaced.
ISRAEL
Ceremonies began at about 6:29 am, the time when Hamas-led militants launched rockets into Israel at the start of the Oct. 7 attack last year.
"We remember our fallen, our hostages that we are obliged to return," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while lighting a candle at Jerusalem's Swords of Iron memorial.
Outside his home, about 300 people led by families of hostages holding up photos of their loved ones observed a minute of silence for the dead as a siren sounded. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, lowered its flags.
At the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of partygoers and staff were killed and scores of others taken hostage, President Isaac Herzog joined grieving families and friends.
Mourners listened to the last track that was played before it was stopped abruptly, just as it did a year ago at sunrise. "This is where she was. This is where she was happy in the last of her moments," said Anat Regev, the aunt of one of the festival-goers killed in the attack.
Crowds of people, many wearing yellow shirts, walked through the ruins of Kibbutz Be'eri that was attacked on Oct 7. "I see my brother's house around the corner, and I'm still there, on that bloody day," said Kobi Ben Ami, whose brother is still held.
Families gathered in what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. Women formed a human chain on the side of a highway, in honour of the captives still in Gaza.
GAZA
No formal events were planned in Gaza on Monday. Israeli forces mounted air and ground offensives in several areas, killing at least 52 people according to Palestinian medics.
Hamas said it fired a missile salvo at Tel Aviv, with the Israeli military saying sirens sounded in central Israel.
In a speech to mark the anniversary, Khaled Meshaal, who leads the group's political office in exile in Qatar, urged Arab and Muslim countries to launch "new fronts of resistance" against Israel.
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it remained committed to "armed resistance". The Oct 7 attacks had "eliminated all attempts to marginalise our cause", it added in a statement on Sunday.
Some Gazans told Reuters they yearned to go back to their normal lives before the war.
"Before Oct 7, one had dreams. As a father, I have six children, my biggest burden was how to provide them with homes and get them married. But after Oct. 7, this came to nothing," Abu Hassan Shaheen said.
IRAN
Iran - which has been caught up in an escalating conflict with Israel through its own forces and groups it supports - said it was reaffirming its solidarity with the Palestinians. The foreign ministry called the events of Oct 7 "a turning point in the history of the Palestinian nation's legitimate struggle against occupation and oppression".
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group marked the anniversary by saying it had entered the war in solidarity with Hamas in the interests of "truth, justice and complete humanity".
The leader of Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said on Sunday that "fronts" against Israel were moving towards an escalation. Israel's military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen on Monday.
UNITED STATES
US President Joe Biden condemned the "unspeakable brutality" of the Oct 7 attack, paid tribute to the people including American citizens killed and kidnapped, and said he remained committed to Israel's right to defend itself a year on.
He added in a statement: "I believe that history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day ... We will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza."
US Vice President Kamala Harris said: "We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated."
She added: "I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year - tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine."
AUSTRALIA
At Sydney's Bondi Beach, people holding Israeli and Australian flags listened in silence to a reading of the names of the hostages still held by Hamas.
ITALY
Jewish students placed chained, blindfolded teddy bears - each wearing a T-shirt with a photo of an Israeli hostage - at landmarks in Rome including the Colosseum.
UNITED NATIONS
Israel held a minute's silence at the UN headquarters in Geneva at a ceremony attended by more than 100 diplomats from India, Kenya and Western countries.
TURKEY
President Tayyip Erdogan wrote on X: "What is dying in Gaza, Palestine, and nowadays in Lebanon is not just women, children, babies, innocent civilians; it is humanity (and) the international system that is expected to serve humanity."
BRITAIN
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "One year on from these horrific attacks we must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country." Foreign minister David Lammy visited London's South Tottenham Synagogue. Spain, Italy, Portugal and South Africa were among other countries issuing statements marking the day.
FRANCE
"Force must give way to diplomacy. We have been pleading for months .. for a ceasefire," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in Jerusalem after visiting the Nova festival site. President Emmanuel Macron said on X: "The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity."