Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a message of unity, but families who lost loved ones called for accountability
Commemorations have taken place across Israel to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on the Jewish state. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the attack ignited Israel’s “inner strength,” families of those killed hold the state responsible for allowing it to happen in the first place.
Hamas militants launched a surprise assault on Israel one year ago on Monday, capturing dozens of towns and villages in the south of the country, killing around 1,100 people, and taking roughly 250 hostages back to Gaza. Israel retaliated by declaring war on the militant group. The ongoing conflict has resulted in the deaths of nearly 42,000 Palestinians to date, as well as the lives of 726 Israeli soldiers.
“As has happened time and again in Israel’s history, it is precisely in moments of difficulty that great inner strength emerges,” Netanyahu stated in a pre-recorded ceremony aired on Monday. “We stood together for the defense of our country, for the defense of our homeland,” he continued, adding that Israel “will continue to fight” as long as “the enemy threatens our existence and the peace of our country.”
At an informal ceremony organized by families who lost loved ones during the attack, the atmosphere was more charged with anger. Addressing the event in Tel Aviv, Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother was killed by an Israeli soldier during a botched hostage rescue mission in December, stated that October 7 “was a day without an army, without a state – a day where all we had was ourselves, the citizens.”
Shamriz is not the first Israeli to accuse the country’s government of failing to prepare for the attack. Within days of the assault, Egyptian intelligence officials reported that they had repeatedly alerted their Israeli counterparts that Hamas was planning “something big,” but that these warnings were dismissed in West Jerusalem. In early October of last year, the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) intelligence directorate compiled a report indicating that the Palestinian militants were training for a large-scale invasion of the Jewish state, Israeli broadcaster Kan in June.
According to an Israeli source cited by American journalist Seymour Hersh last year, Netanyahu was so unconcerned with the possibility of an attack from Gaza that he two-thirds of the IDF troops normally stationed at Israel’s border with the enclave to provide security at an Orthodox Jewish festival in the West Bank.
“Instead of standing here as multitudes of the people of Israel, united, we stand here waiting for the next siren,” Shamriz said, referring to the rockets still being launched into Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah. “Instead of a state inquiry commission being established to investigate this colossal failure, we are asking the questions ourselves without getting any answers.”
At rallies and vigils over the last year, families of those taken prisoner by Hamas have repeatedly urged Netanyahu to negotiate a deal with the militants to secure the release of their loved ones. Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, and at a protest in Jerusalem on Monday, Yael Or, whose cousin’s body is still in Gaza, accused Netanyahu of prioritizing “endless war” over the hostages’ release.
“Netanyahu wants to stay in power forever,” she . “And to do that, he has dragged Israel into eternal, never-ending war. This means that our hostages have been abandoned in Hamas death tunnels deep under Gaza. Netanyahu has committed crimes against his own people.”