Vigils, protests as US marks October 7 attack, Israel’s war on Gaza | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

US President Joe Biden and other senior politicians in the United States have reiterated their support for Israel on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on the country on October 7.

In a statement Monday, Biden condemned the “unspeakable brutality” of the attack that killed 1,139 people and captured about 250 others in the Gaza Strip.

“On this solemn anniversary, let us bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7 attacks, but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day,” said the US President, who held a memorial ceremony in White to mark the anniversary House held an anniversary.

But right-wing advocates were quick to note that Biden’s statement did not express the same level of anger over the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,900 Palestinians across the coastal enclave since October 7.

The US president appeared to blame Hamas for the suffering in the area, saying October 7 was a “dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”

Since the start of the Gaza war, Biden has been criticized for failing to condemn Israel – the US’s main Middle East ally – for its deadly attacks on Palestinians.

The Democrat, who describes himself as a staunch defender of Israel, has also rejected calls from human rights activists to condition U.S. aid to the Israeli government as it tries to reach a ceasefire to end the war.

Washington provides Israel with at least $3.8 billion in military aid annually and Biden has greenlit $14 billion in additional aid to the U.S. ally since Israel’s war in Gaza began last October.

“Today we mark a year of immense suffering for the peoples of Israel and Palestine, as well as the continued failure of governments to act in the interests of human security and international order,” Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, said on Monday .

“We cannot look away from the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed, wounded, orphaned and malnourished as a result of Israel’s sustained and often indiscriminate attack on Gaza,” Okail said in a statement.

“And we are outraged that the United States government continues to weaponize this carnage in violation of its own laws and to obstruct the diplomacy it is conducting to end the fighting and stop its spread to Lebanon and beyond.”

Meanwhile, protesters across the United States took to the streets to denounce the Biden administration’s alleged complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza as well as military attacks in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Thousands of people marched through New York to demand an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

“We see student groups, unions, Orthodox Jewish groups, Jewish Voice for Peace, a very young group organizing for the Palestinian cause,” Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey reported from New York City.

Demonstrations were also organized in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, as well as on college campuses across the country, responding to crackdowns on solidarity camps in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Since then, many universities have taken strong action against pro-Palestinian demonstrations, giving themselves more power to take tougher action against future sit-ins or protests.

“The students really had to adapt the way they protested,” Saloomey said.

“What I found in talking to them is that they [the students] “They are very cautious about sharing their plans and locations, but they are also angrier, more enthusiastic and more committed to the protest movement than ever before,” she added.

Harris is heartbroken

US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in next month’s election, also condemned the October 7 attacks on Israel.

“We must all ensure that the horrors of October 7 never happen again,” she said in a statement, adding that she would do “everything in my power to ensure that the threat posed by Hamas goes out, will be eliminated.”

Harris also said she was “heartbroken by the level of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year,” but she did not directly blame Israel for the attacks on the enclave.

“[T]Thousands of people died, children continue to flee to safety, mothers and fathers struggle for food, water and medicine,” she said.

Like Biden, Harris has faced calls from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza, including by suspending U.S. arms sales to the country.

However, she rejected this demand and reiterated her unwavering support for Israel.

Monday’s anniversary falls less than a month before the Nov. 5 U.S. election, which will see a neck-and-neck race between Harris and her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.

Harris spoke briefly to reporters and planted a pomegranate tree with her husband on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., in honor of the victims of the Oct. 7 attack.

Trump, for his part, was scheduled to address Jewish community leaders later Monday at one of his Florida resorts in suburban Miami to mark the anniversary.

In an excerpt from an interview with CBS news program 60 Minutes airing Monday night, Harris sidestepped a question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be considered a “really close ally” of the United States.

Instead, she rephrased the question: “Do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people?” And the answer to that question is “yes.”

Analysts accuse Netanyahu of holding up a possible Gaza ceasefire agreement for his own political reasons – and undermining Washington’s stated goal of de-escalation in the region.