Israelis marked on Oct. 7 the first anniversary of the deadly attack by the Hamas terrorist group that plunged their nation into war.
Ceremonies across the country began with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m.—the exact moment a year earlier when Hamas launched a rocket barrage from Gaza providing cover for 3,000 terrorists who stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting more than 200.
At the order of Israel’s Home Front Command, the moment was not marked by sirens. Air-raid sirens are still heard daily in Israel. National memorial sirens are traditionally reserved in Israel for Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined the people of Israel in mourning on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against the nation.
"Today marks one year of mourning for the more than 1,200 innocent people of all ages, including 46 Americans, massacred in southern Israel by the terrorist group Hamas," Biden said on Monday. "One year since Hamas committed horrific acts of sexual violence. One year since more than 250 innocents were taken hostage, including 12 Americans. One year for the survivors carrying wounds, seen and unseen, who will never be the same. And one year of a devastating war."
Biden said he and Harris "remain fully committed to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist."
The Hezbollah terrorist group fired rockets at Israel’s third largest city, Haifa, early on Oct. 7 as Israeli forces looked poised to expand ground incursions into southern Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel by Hamas.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, stated that it targeted a military base south of Haifa with “Fadi 1” missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 40 miles away, and areas north of Haifa with missiles in a second assault later on Oct. 7.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the Israeli Air Force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon.
An attendee of the Nova Music Festival, previously thought to be alive in Hamas captivity, has been confirmed dead by the Israeli military on the first anniversary of the massacre.
Idan Shtivi, 28, was killed while attempting to escape from the music festival site near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. On the morning of that day, Hamas-led terrorists launched heavy rocket volleys from Gaza as cover while they swarmed into Israel using pickup trucks, motorbikes, speed boats, and motorized paragliders, unleashing a spree of killing and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which initially identified Shtivi as a hostage in Gaza, said on Monday that they had informed his family of his death.
Members of Kibbutz Be’eri gathered amid the ruins of their homes to call for the return of the hostages during a commemoration of the Hamas attack a year ago on Monday.
The community saw 101 people killed and 30 taken as hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
Some of the women and children from the kibbutz were released in a cease-fire deal in November, but 10 hostages from Be’eri remain in captivity, most of whom, Israeli intelligence no longer believe to be alive.
The families and friends of people massacred at the Nova music festival gathered at the site of the attack on Monday.
One year ago today, nearly 400 festival-goers were gunned down during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault.
Photographs of those who died were arranged in a semicircle around what was the DJ stage.
