Israel marks one year since October 7 as conflict rages on

Two commemorations of Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel reveal deep divisions within the country about the government's response.

One, which was held in public and organized by bereaved families,addressed Israel's security failures, as well as the heroism on display that day.

The memorial in Tel Aviv was meant to have tens of thousands in attendance, although it was held in front of a much smaller crowd as gatherings are now limited in size for security reasons.

One of the final speakers was Yonathan Shamriz from kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was among the hardest-hit communities during Hamas' attacks. His brother was taken hostage into Gaza and later killed by Israeli fire as he tried to escape.

"It was a day without an army, without a state — a day where all we had was ourselves, the citizens. This is what abandonment looks like," the Times of Israel newspaper reported Shamriz as saying.

The other event, a recorded ceremony set up by the government, touched more on remembrance, bravery and hope.

The distinction underlines a fissure in public discourse over the darkest day in the country's 76-year history and how it should be remembered.

"You can say it's a war on the narrative," Shamriz, also an organizer of the public ceremony, told the Reuters news agency.

"This memorial will tell the story of what we've been through on the seventh. That there was no army, but there were soldiers. There was no state, but there were citizens. And I think the government memorial will not mention the mistakes that happened."

"The tape of the government, the other memorial, it does not quite reflect how we want to remember what happened on the seventh," he said.

The private ceremony was organized by cabinet minister Miri Regev, a close supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, in power for most of the past 15 years, has faced heavy criticism for not taking responsibility for security and intelligence failures that led to the October 7 attacks. 

The state ceremony was filmed in the small city of Ofakim near the Gaza border, which lost more than 40 of its residents in the Hamas assault.

Ofakim was also a bastion for Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and his conservative allies in the last election. Smaller communities in the area usually vote more liberal.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said questions have arisen over the direction of Israel's ongoing response to the October 7, 2024, Hamas attacks.

Steinmeier emphasized that it was Germany's responsibility to stand byIsrael when it was attacked. 

But he also said: "This war has already killed too many people, brought too much suffering: for Israelis and Palestinians, and now also for the people of Lebanon." 

The people of Gaza had experienced immeasurable suffering, flight, hunger, and disease for a year, he said, and there was a question about where the limits to Israel's response lay.

"The questions are getting louder, more pressing, and so is the public debate — less about whether Israel has a right to self-defense, but rather about where the limits of any right to self-defense lie," said Steinmeier.

A reality in which Israelis and Palestinians can live peacefully side by side will not be achieved through military means alone, he added. 

Steinmeier, who is Germany's head of state, also warned against the division that the conflict has opened up in Germany itself. 

"Grief, anger, helplessness, fear for relatives and friends on both sides — these are the feelings that are troubling many people in our country," he said. "But however upset we may be, we must not lose our compass."

The Israeli army says it will expand its offensive against Hezbollah to Lebanon's coast south of the Al-Awali river. 

It warned people to stay away from the shore in the area.

The army "will soon operate in the maritime area against Hezbollah's terrorist activities" south of the Al-Awali river, said a statement published in Arabic on social media.

The Israeli military says it struck more than 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon within a 60-minute period as part of wider extensive strikes on Monday.

"The IAF [air force] conducted an extensive aerial operation and struck over 120 terror targets in southern Lebanon within an hour," the military said in a statement.

It added the targets belonged to the group's elite Radwan forces and other units.

Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah says it has targeted Israeli troops in two southern Lebanon border villages.

Hezbollah fighters "bombed... a gathering of Israeli forces" in Maroun al-Ras with "a rocket salvo, the group said in a statement. 

The group has reported several clashes in that area in recent days.

It later said its fighters had  "bombed... a gathering of Israeli enemy forces" in the nearby village of Blida "with a barrage of rockets and artillery shells."

The Iran-backed group also said it had fired rockets at areas north of the Israeli city of Haifa for a second time on Monday.

It said it launched a "large rocket salvo" in the afternoon.

Iran-backed Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

The Israeli military says a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen at central Israel has been successfully intercepted.

The projectile set off air raid sirens across large parts of central Israel,  sending residents running for cover.

"Following the sirens that sounded in a number of areas in central Israel, the surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen was successfully intercepted," the military said in a statement.

It said the Israeli Air Force had carried out the interception. The statement omitted to say who had fired the missile.

However, the Iran-backed Houthi movement which is in control of northern Yemen, has frequently attacked Israel over the past year. 

The group says it is doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians.

On the early morning of October 7, 2023, Yarin Ilovich — stage name Artifex — was behind the turntables at the Supernova festival in Israel, watching the crowd dance.

A year later, he recalls the moment when he abruptly stopped the music.

The Israeli army says it has sent more ground troops from its 91st Division into the south of Lebanon.

The army released a video apparently showing its soldiers on Lebanese territory.

Israel does not provide the exact numbers of its troops in Lebanon, nor of those participating in its ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip.

However, an Israeli army division can comprise several thousand soldiers.

The Israeli army appears to be concentrating on an area near the towns of Udaissa and Kafr Kila in the southeast of Lebanon and around Bint Jubayl in the south.

Further skirmishes have been reported between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers in these areas. 

Hezbollah said on Monday that it had launched a missile attack on a group of soldiers in the border town of Maroun al-Ras.

 

The Israeli army said its forces were launching a "targeted" strike in a southern Beirut suburb.

"The IDF [Israeli army] is currently conducting a targeted strike in the area of Dahiyeh, a key Hezbollah terrorist stronghold," the army said in a statement.

A Lebanese security source told AFP that an Israeli strike hit near Lebanon's only commerical airport in Beirut, close to Hezbollah'sstronghold in the south of the capital.

"Israel conducted an air strike near the airport," the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Lebanon's official National News Agency had earlier said Israel launched "a series of strikes targeting more than 30 towns and villages in the Tyre district," after earlier saying "series of strikes" hit other south Lebanon locations.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that the October 7 terror attacks on Israel perpatrated by Hamas was also a "dark day" for Palestinians.

"I believe that history will also remember October 7 as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day," Biden said in a statement.

"Far too many civilians have suffered far too much during this year of conflict," He added.

Biden also said the US remains "fully committed" to Israel's security, and that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, Iran and others.

"One year later, Vice President (Kamala) Harris and I remain fully committed to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist," he added.

For her part, Kamala Harris, who is the current Democratic nominee in this year's presidential election, released her own statement, echoing Biden's sentiment.

"What Hamas did that day was pure evil -- it was brutal and sickening," Harris said. "I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year," she added, saying also that it is "far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people."

Pope Francis has acknowledged the anniversary of the war in Gaza by criticizing the "shameful inability" of world powers to end the conflict.

"A year ago, the fuse of hatred was lit; it did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral of violence, in the shameful inability of the international community and the most powerful countries to silence the weapons and put an end to the tragedy of war," he said in an open letter to Catholics in the Middle East.

"Blood is still being shed, as are tears. Anger is growing, along with the desire for revenge, while it seems that few people care about what is most needed and what is most desired: dialogue and peace."

While the pope's letter was meant for Catholics in the region, he also addressed "the men and women of every confession and religion who in the Middle East are suffering from the insanity of war: I am close to you, I am with you".

"I am with you, who have no voice, for despite all the talk of plans and strategies, there is little concern for those who suffer the devastation of war, which the powerful impose on others; yet they will be subject to the inflexible judgment of God," Francis added.

The leaders of Italy, the UK and France have all expressed their solidarity with Israel, remembering the October 7 attacks.

"Let us not forget the inhumane aggression perpetrated a year ago by Hamas," Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a speech at the Great Synagogue in central Rome.

"Remembering and strongly condemning what happened a year ago is not a mere ritual, but the prerequisite for any political action to restore peace in the Middle East," she said.

"The reticence that is increasingly encountered in doing so betrays a latent and rampant antisemitism that must concern everyone," she added.

"We reiterate Israel's legitimate right to defend itself... in accordance with international humanitarian law," Meloni said, saying Italy "cannot remain insensitive to the enormous toll of innocent civilian victims in Gaza." 

For his part, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that Britain "will not falter in our pursuit of peace."

In a statement, he paid tribute to the victims killed a year ago, saying: "We stand together to remember the lives so cruelly taken."

Starmer added that Britain "must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country." 

He also repeated his calls for immediate cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon "and for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza."

French President Emmanuel Macron sent "fraternal thoughts" to the victims and their families, commemorating the anniversary with a post on the social media platform X.

"The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity. We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting," Macron wrote.

Hezbollah has said it attacked areas north of Israel's Haifa with a barrage of missiles. It was the second assault on Monday
after the group had earlier launched rockets on the northern Israeli port city.

The Lebanese Shiite militia said on Monday, in the context of the anniversary of the war in Gaza, that there is no place for Israel "in our region and in our social, cultural and human structure."

Hezbollah said the attack on October 7, 2023, by the Islamist group Hamas was a "heroic operation" that will have "historical implications and strategic consequences" for the Middle East.

The militant group also said it had attacked Israel on October 8, 2023, as an act of solidarity with Hamas, adding that it was standing on the "side of truth, justice and complete humanity" and was defending Lebanon.

The October 7, 2023 attacks resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with some 250 more being taken hostage. Israel's retaliatory operations have killed more than 41,000 people in Gaza, according to UN figures.

Michael Levy, the brother of hostage Or Levy, told DW that his family has not had any news of his brother since October 7. The army believes he is still alive, but "other than that, we don't have any more information."

Asked what he thought had to happen to secure his brother's relase, Levy said: "It's very simple, Israel and Hamas have to seal a deal. I believe that the international community has an obligation to make sure that happens."

Levy said it was not just an Israeli issue, because Hamas promised that they would carry out attacks "again and again and again, but next time in Berlin, next time in New York, and in London."

Speaking at an international conference in Hamburg, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his country's sympathy with the people of Israel.

"We feel with you the horror, the pain, the uncertainty and the sadness. We stand by your side," he said. "The Hamas terrorists must be fought."

At the same time, he highlighted the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, saying "people need hope and perspectives if they are to renounce terror."

"That's why the federal government is calling for a cease-fire, for the hostages to be freed, and for a political process, even if that seems more distant today than ever," he added.

He also shared an image on social media of a yellow ribbon in front of his office in Berlin, with the message "We share your grief."

Later on Monday, Scholz is set to attend a commemorative ceremony organized by the Jewish community of Hamburg.