The anniversary of the Hamas attack is overshadowed by a renewed Israeli-Iranian conflict

Commemorations of the Oct. 7 attack began with candles, prayers and music in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival.

An image of those killed appeared on a screen at the entrance to the ceremony as hundreds gathered to light candles at a makeshift shrine, leave handwritten notes or simply hug each other.

“Coming to this event a year after that terrible October 7 massacre is very touching and breathtaking,” said Solly Laniado, one of the event organizers.

“Three days ago we didn’t want to hold the event at all,” he said, citing the spate of missile warnings and the rocket attack on Tel Aviv last week that left many people uneasy and large parts of the normally vibrant city empty.

The anniversary comes as Israel wages a new war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and prepares for a retaliatory strike against Tehran, raising fears of an even larger conflict.

Anticipation is growing over how and when Israel will respond to Iran’s rocket fire last week, with uncertainty overshadowing the commemoration.

“It’s a difficult day,” said Omri Sasi, 35, one of the producers at last year’s festival who survived the attack.

By his own estimate, he lost around 50 friends that day, including an uncle, a pregnant cousin and her husband.

Onslaught of violence

The two-day festival in the fields surrounding Kibbutz Reim took place just across the Gaza border in southern Israel and attracted over 3,000 visitors from October 6th to 7th.

At least 370 people were killed in the Nova rave in the Negev Desert, making it the deadliest location during the October 7 attack.

Footage of the day filmed by Hamas showed the militants gunning down scores of festival-goers trying to escape and taking others hostage, while heavily armed Hamas fighters moved unhindered through the area.

After the attack, the venue remained largely untouched, with dozens of burned-out vehicles and abandoned tents, sleeping bags and clothing scattered across the field.

The attack on the festival was part of a violent attack unleashed by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.

Some 251 people were captured and taken hostage to the Gaza Strip, 97 of whom are still being held in the coastal area, including 37 who the Israeli military says are dead.

During a week-long ceasefire in late November, 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Just hours after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel launched a devastating military offensive against Gaza that has reduced swathes of the territory to rubble and displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million residents at least once amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

At least 41,870 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.

The figures were deemed reliable by the United Nations.

But as the anniversary approaches, for many it is just the latest milestone in a year marred by trauma, loss and ongoing war.

“It’s not easy to think about it much,” Sasi said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)