Israel marks the first anniversary Monday of the devastating October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war and has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a perilous regional crisis.
President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service at Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Palestinian militants.
A rally calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be held at Beeri, a kibbutz community where more than 100 people were killed last October 7.
A memorial is also planned at kibbutz Reim, site of the Nova music festival where militants murdered hundreds of people.
In Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, events are being organised from Sunday, with families of hostages still held in Gaza planning a demonstration to demand their release.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to deliver a televised address to the nation on Monday, although details of official events to mark the painful anniversary remain unclear.
“Our wounds still cannot fully heal because they are ongoing. Because hostages are still being tortured, executed, and dying in captivity,” Herzog said in a statement issued on Saturday to mark the anniversary.
“Because they and their families are still living in the loss and the terror of October 7 right at these very moments… In many senses, we are all still living the aftermath of October 7.”
On that day, Hamas militants stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel in what would become the deadliest attack in the country’s history. At the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the militants launched their assault by land, air, and sea.
A year later, the confirmed death toll from the attack, including hostages killed in captivity, has reached 1,205 on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants abducted 251 hostages on October 7, 97 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military has said are dead.
Hamas fighters stormed army bases, kibbutz communities and the music festival, with at least 370 people killed at the Nova festival alone.