Anniversary, grief, and war
Israelis gathered on Wednesday to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage, and sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has left much of the territory in ruins.
Palestinians marked the anniversary as Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, with more than half the territory remaining in the hands of the Israeli military and Israeli strikes continuing almost daily despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago.
In Reim, families hugged at 6:29 a.m. local time, the exact time the first rockets were launched three years ago, as booms from explosions in nearby Gaza were heard.
Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son, Sean, said, “Every morning, you wake up and there is just endless missing.”
Elkana Bohbot, 37, marked the anniversary in Israel for the first time after being released from 738 days of captivity, describing how he was held 50 metres underground in a dark, damp tunnel.
Reporting for this section
CBCHostages, vigils, and politics
In Kfar Aza, where Hamas militants killed dozens of Israelis before taking 19 hostages back into Gaza, residents held a vigil for those killed, standing in silence as a trumpet played a solemn bugle call.
Zion Regev, a community leader in the kibbutz, said most residents remain displaced and have yet to return, the trauma of Oct. 7 continuing to shape their lives.
Elkana Bohbot said his captors forced him to take part in several propaganda videos, including one where he acts out a fake call to his family.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett joined the Nova ceremony and told reporters, “It was a catastrophic failure for the State of Israel, which was established to defend the Jews on our land.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz urged the army to tighten vigilance, citing intelligence about potential Hamas attacks on Israeli forces.
Casualties, ceasefire, and stakes
In Gaza, the anniversary unfolded as more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children. The sources also said that while a ceasefire that took effect on October 10 has halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued, and since the ceasefire, 1,460 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the ministry. Hamas praised the October 7 attack as an example of “heroism, resilience and national solidarity” and said it had returned the Palestinian cause to the world’s attention.
Hamas also said, “The conflict with the enemy did not begin on that day, as its final chapters are not written yet,” as Palestinians described how their lives had deteriorated over the past three years. In Israel, protesters gathered outside parliament in Jerusalem calling for accountability for the security failure and blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing an independent inquiry into the attack.
What some reports left out
Israel has yet to start reckoning with security failures
Reported by: Haaretz Israel Security
Not found in: Haaretz Editorial, Global Banking & Finance Review, AAP, EDP24, Haaretz Israel Political News, Times of Israel, CBC