A year later, David Lammy remembers the victims of the October 7th attack

Foreign Minister David Lammy said it was “a day of deep reflection and pain” as he remembered the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Lammy described last year’s attack, which killed about 1,200 people, as “the worst attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust.”

Speaking at the South Tottenham Synagogue, he said he was thinking of the “many hostages still being held in Gaza” – particularly Emily Damari, the only British-Israeli hostage still in captivity.

Ms. Damari, 28, was kidnapped by Hamas from a kibbutz along with 250 others and taken to Gaza. Her family has “no word about her fate or how she is doing,” Lammy added.

A total of 97 hostages remain missing.

Israel responded to the Hamas attack with a military campaign in Gaza that killed thousands in Palestinian territory.

“This is a painful day for the Jewish community in this country and throughout the diaspora,” Lammy told reporters.

“It is a day of deep reflection and pain as one remembers October 7, the worst attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust,” he added.

Addressing a Memorial event in London on Sunday, Ms. Damari’s mother, Mandy Damari, said hostages who were released last November told her they had been in contact with her while in captivity.

“Every day is hell when you don’t know what Emily is going through,” she said.

She said Britain and other countries must do more to ensure the release of her daughter and the other hostages.

“How come she’s still locked up there after a year? Why isn’t the whole world, especially Britain, fighting for her release every moment? She’s one of them,” she said.

She told the crowd that her daughter, who was born and lived in Israel, loved visiting Britain – her “second home across the sea”.

Ms Damari loved watching Spurs play, going to the pub and shopping at Primark, her mother added.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the country must “unequivocally” stand with the Jewish community and described October 7 as the “darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust”.

“As a father, a husband, a son, a brother – it was unimaginable to meet the families of those who lost their loved ones last week. Their grief and pain is ours and is shared by families across the country,” Sir Keir said.