Israel marks the October 7 attack as the Gaza war continues

On Monday, October 7, Israel marks the first anniversary of the devastating Hamas attack. The attack that sparked the Gaza war has since spread to neighboring Lebanon, sparking a dangerous regional crisis.

President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service in Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit by the attack by Palestinian militants. A rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is scheduled to take place in Beeri, a kibbutz community where over 100 people were killed on October 7. In addition, a memorial service will be held at Kibbutz Reim, the venue of the Nova music festival, which was attended by hundreds of people who lost their lives.

Events will take place in Tel Aviv starting Sunday where the families of the hostages still held in Gaza are planning a demonstration to demand their release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to give a televised address on Monday, but specific details of the official commemoration are still unclear.

“Our wounds still cannot heal completely because they are ongoing. Because hostages are still being tortured, executed and dying in captivity,” said Herzog in a message to mark the anniversary. “Because in these very moments they and their families are still living with the loss and the horror of October 7th… In many ways, we are all still experiencing the aftermath of October 7th.”

That day, Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, storming across the border from Gaza at the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Currently, the confirmed death toll from the attack, including hostages killed in captivity, on the Israeli side stands at 1,205, most of whom were civilians, according to official Israeli figures. A total of 251 hostages were kidnapped on October 7, 97 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 33 whose deaths were confirmed by the Israeli military.

After the attack, Netanyahu declared that Israel was “at war” and launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas. Since then, large swaths of Gaza have been devastated and nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The Israeli offensive has claimed at least 41,825 lives, mostly civilians, in Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory, according to the Health Ministry. These figures have been confirmed by the United Nations.

The conflict escalated further when Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group and a key Hamas ally, fired rockets into Israel, leading to cross-border attacks that displaced more than 60,000 people inside Israel. Fighting has intensified recently, with Israel carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Lebanon, resulting in numerous Lebanese casualties and targeted killings of prominent Hezbollah commanders, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The situation in Lebanon and Gaza now poses the risk of a major conflict, especially after Iran fired around 200 rockets at Israel on October 1 – the second direct attack of its kind in less than six months. Iran said the rocket fire was in retaliation for the killings of Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas political leader who was killed in Tehran in July.

In a rare sermon on Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that “with these martyrs, the resistance in the region will not give in and will win.” Both Iran and the international community are now preparing for possible Israeli retaliation after the rocket attack before.