Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the world to support Israel in the fight against its enemies, as he spoke on Monday during a ceremony to mark exactly one year since the terrorist attacks which shocked the world and provoked Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
“This is a scar on humanity. This is a scar on the face of the Earth,” Herzog said at the site of the 2023 Nova music festival near the Gaza border.
Terrorists from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and other militants stormed across the border exactly one year ago, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage in southern Israeli communities and at the festival.
Nearly 400 people were killed at the music festival alone.
“The world has to realize and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies,” Herzog said.
“We are fighting the battle of the free world.”
A year of war
The October 7 attacks provoked the massive Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a subsequent ground invasion.
Over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the local health authorities, which are controlled by Hamas. Most of these are civilians, although this figure does not distinguish between civilians and militants.
Tensions have since rocketed and brought the Middle East region to the brink of a wider conflict.
Israel also faces daily attacks on its northern border with Lebanon from the Hezbollah militant group – which supports Hamas and is also backed by Iran – and has sent troops into southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military on Sunday said it had launched a new ground offensive in Gaza, while fighting was continuing along the Lebanese border.
Worldwide sorrow at Mideast deaths
The past year in the Middle East has been an “unrelenting tragedy,” the United Nations said on Monday.
“No statistics or words can fully convey the extent of the physical, mental and societal devastation that has taken place,” Joyce Msuya, the acting head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Msuya called on EU member states to “wield their influence” to ensure international humanitarian law and human rights were respected.
“They must also work to end impunity. An immediate ceasefire and durable peace are long overdue.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that “our hearts are also with the Jewish communities across the world.”
“On this tragic anniversary, I want to honour the memories of the victims,” she said in a written statement, adding that the EU “stands with all the innocent people whose lives have been shattered to the core since that fateful day.”
Hamas’ attack “brought immense suffering not only upon the people of Israel, but also upon innocent Palestinians.”
Day of mourning for relatives
While the nation unites in mourning, Israel is nevertheless divided when it comes to finding a way out of the conflict and bringing the remaining hostages in Gaza home.
Some relatives accuse the right-wing-religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring the their loved ones back alive.
Dozens of relatives and their supporters held a demonstration outside Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem, demanding that Netanyahu make a deal so that “the living can reconnect with their lives and the dead can be buried with dignity.”