Israelis mark October 7 attack with candles

Families lit candles and observed a moment of silence at a memorial service in southern Israel to mark the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attacks on Monday, as the sounds of helicopters and artillery fire echoed from nearby Gaza.

At the Nova rave site, President Isaac Herzog began the day with a moment of silence at 06:29 am -- the minute the attack began with thousands of rockets fired from Gaza to provide air cover to militants storming across the border a year ago.

"October 7, 2023, is a day that should be remembered in infamy, when thousands of cruel terrorists broke into our homes, violated our families, burned, chopped, raped and hijacked and abducted our citizens, our brothers and sisters," said the president.

"This is a scar on humanity."

Families wearing T-shirts with the faces of the missing embraced and others took pictures as the trance song that played at the rave during the moment of the attack blared in homage to the music festival, an AFP correspondent reported.

The reverberations from the ongoing fighting in Gaza served as an immediate and painful reminder of the wars sparked by the Hamas onslaught that left 1,206 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, after the militants overran swathes of southern Israel -- killing civilians across kibbutzim, small communities and a music festival.

Militants took 251 people as hostages to the Gaza Strip, of whom 97 are still held captive in the coastal territory, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The fields at kibbutz Reim are where at least 370 people were killed when Hamas fighters murdered festival goers en masse and abducted several others -- making it the single deadliest site on October 7.

"The feelings for all the people of Israel are very difficult. We hope that from this difficult decline we have reached, from now on there will only be an ascension," said Israel Livman, whose nephew was killed during the attack on the festival.

- Rocket fire -

As commemorations began, the military said at least four projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip, where at least 41,909 people have been killed since the start of Israel's retaliatory offensive.

The rockets from the strip were just a few in a flurry of barrages fired on Monday, with most crossing from the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli troops have also been battling Hezbollah militants for the past year and launched a ground incursion last week.

Near the border with Gaza, thousands of people in cars flocked to a separate ceremony at the kibbutz Nir Oz, even as nearby military positions targeted the strip with heavy bursts of shelling and helicopters fired at the territory and dropped flares, according to an AFP photographer.

Nir Oz was among the hardest hit communities on October 7, with initial assessments suggesting one in four residents were either killed, kidnapped or missing in the wake of the attack.

- 'Still in captivity' -

In Jerusalem, demonstrators protested near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence where they demanded a ceasefire and called for the return of the hostages still held captive in Gaza.

Protesters waved signs with pictures of the hostages saying "Bring them home now".

"Our loved ones are still in captivity," demonstrator Yuli Ben Ami told AFP.

"It's a really hard punch in the gut. It's a year that just disappeared."

For Shir Siegel, the wait for her father's return from captivity has been agonising.

"A year has passed but actually one long day has passed that feels like an eternity," she told AFP.

To the west, in Tel Aviv, interceptors boomed over Israel's commercial hub as Hamas fired a barrage of rockets targeting the city.

"It still feels surreal, like a nightmare that we are still supposed to wake up from eventually," said resident Ariel Tamir.

And in Gaza, Israeli forces intensified operations in the territory after surrounding Jabaliya refugee camp, where they launched air strikes in response to indications that Hamas was regrouping in the area.

"Last night was one of the hardest nights of the war," said Muhammad Al-Muqayyid from northern Gaza's Jabaliya.

"We were terrified, waking up to the screams of children, with fear and panic overwhelming us. The shelling was coming from everywhere, randomly, and we had no idea what was happening."

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