Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Israelis gathered on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and triggered the war in Gaza. The anniversary comes at a time when all the hostages have returned home, marking what the report described as a new stage of grief for families in Israel.
For Palestinians, the day brought another reminder of the hardship that followed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Much of the territory has been left in ruins, most of its 2 million people are living in severe conditions, and the war has also reshaped the wider Middle East, from southern Lebanon to the confrontation involving Iran and the United States.
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In southern Israel, families held commemorations at intersections, bomb shelters and the Nova music festival site in Reim, where militants killed more than 350 people in and around the venue. Families stood beside photographs of those killed and embraced at 6.29 am, the exact time the first rockets were launched, as explosions were heard from nearby Gaza.
Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son Sean, said she visits the site every Saturday because it is where she feels closest to him. “I have a video of him dancing here that ends at 6:29 in the morning; it’s in front of my eyes all the time,” she said. “Every morning, you wake up, and there is just endless missing.” Hundreds of people came to pay their respects at the site.
Elkana Bohbot, 37, marked the anniversary in Israel for the first time after being released last year following 738 days in captivity. Abducted from the festival, he said he spent most of that time 50 metres underground in a dark, damp tunnel, where he was held in a small cell with other hostages, given very little food and allowed to bathe only every few weeks. He also said his captors forced him to take part in propaganda videos, including one showing a fake call to his family.
In the 11 months since his release, Bohbot has undergone physical and emotional rehabilitation. In August, his wife Rivka gave birth to a daughter, fulfilling a promise he made to himself while in captivity to give his five-year-old son, Reem, a sibling. The newborn Michele is “not a symbol for my people; she is more of a symbol for the enemy,” Bohbot told The Associated Press. “So this child is the message for you that we were here, and we will always be here forever.”
In Gaza, no events were expected on Wednesday. Israel’s offensive has displaced around 90 per cent of the population, often more than once, while restrictions on the entry of goods and aid have deepened a hunger crisis. More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says around half of those killed were women and children. UN agencies and independent experts generally regard the ministry’s figures as reliable. Although a ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10 halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued almost daily, targeting what Israel says are Hamas militants. Since the ceasefire, the ministry says 1,460 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, while seven Israeli soldiers have been killed. Hamas has portrayed the Oct. 7 attack as a response to decades of Israeli military occupation, land seizures and settlement construction, but the report said the Palestinian goal of an independent state now appears even more distant.
The anniversary also comes against the backdrop of a changed political and regional landscape. In Israel, a contentious election later this month has added to tensions, while separate memorial events have reflected divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his handling of the war and his reluctance to launch an official inquiry into the failures of the day. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who hopes to unseat Netanyahu, visited Reim and met grieving families, while opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot met families at a bomb shelter in southern Israel. The attack also set off a chain of events that expanded conflict across the region, with Israeli troops occupying large parts of southern Lebanon, violence rising in the occupied West Bank, and confrontation involving Iran and the United States rattling Gulf countries and global markets. As Israelis mourned and Palestinians struggled to recover, the anniversary underscored how the Oct. 7 attack and the war that followed continue to shape lives across the region.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
