War rages on multiple fronts as Israel marks a year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack


Israelis were holding vigils and somber ceremonies on Monday to mark a year since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the deadliest in the country’s history, which sparked the war in Gaza and scarred Israelis indelibly.

Mideast War Anniversary People light candles at a memorial for the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack on Israel, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

Mideast War Anniversary People cross a bridge with the date 7.10, marking the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

Mideast War Anniversary Photo Gallery Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza wave photos of their loved ones and the Israeli and U.S. flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary People hug at the house of Maayan and Yuval Bar killed by Hamas, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli communal farm on the Gaza border, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

Mideast War Anniversary An attendant walks through a mural with portraits of the victims at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Mideast War Anniversary Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Mideast War Anniversary Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Mideast War Anniversary People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Mideast War Anniversary People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary A woman looks at charred vehicles burned in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants outside the town of Netivot, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary A woman looks at a battle-scarred home at the Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli communal farm on the Gaza border, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

Israel Lebanon Smoke rises following an explosion in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

AP Photo/Leo Correa

Lebanon Israel A man stands in front of a destroyed car at a scene hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

AP Photo/Hussein Malla

Israel Lebanon People stand next to burnt and damaged cars after a rocket, launched from Lebanon, hit an area in Kfar Vradim, northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

AP Photo/Leo Correa

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary A woman reacts as emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary Residents run away as emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary Sara Chen weeps over the grave of her longtime friend, Staff Sergeant Avraham Nerya Cohen, who was killed in action on 7 October. 2023, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, 7 October 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary Senai Guedalia tidies the grave of her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Yosef Guedalia, who was killed one year ago at as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at Mt. Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary People protest on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel and call for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary A man sleeps on a bench as people hold hands at a memorial marking the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

APTOPIX Mideast War Anniversary People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Mideast War Anniversary Emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

AP Photo/Oded Balilty

Lebanon Israel A man takes pictures by his mobile phone of destroyed buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

AP Photo/Hussein Malla

APTOPIX Lebanon Israel Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

AP Photo/Bilal Hussein

RE’IM, Israel (AP) — Israelis held somber ceremonies on Monday to mark a year since the deadliest attack in the country’s history, a Hamas-led raid that shattered its sense of security and ignited wars on two fronts with no end in sight.

Hamas marked the anniversary of its Oct. 7, 2023, attack by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv, underscoring its resilience after a year of war and devastation in Gaza. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8 in support if its ally Hamas, vowed to keep up the barrages despite its recent losses.

The surprise cross-border attack one year ago — which caught Israelis unprepared on a major Jewish holiday — shook their faith in their leaders and their military, and its aftershocks are still rippling across the region. Around 100 hostages captured that day have not been returned, a third of whom are believed to be dead, and cease-fire efforts have ground to a halt.

The war in Gaza rages on and Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah. There is also an escalating conflict with Iran — which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah — that threatens to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.

No formal commemorative event is planned in Gaza, where fighting is still underway, huge areas have been completely destroyed and most of the population have been driven from their homes.

In Lebanon, meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed at least 10 firefighters, the latest in a series of strikes that have killed dozens of first responders, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It said they were in a municipality building in the southern town of Baraachit that was hit as they prepared for a mission.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israelis hold memorials and call for the return of hostages

Israelis flocked to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites around the country, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity and soldiers killed in battle. Commemorations were also planned across Europe and elsewhere.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted another 250.

Before dawn, hundreds of families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where at least 364 revelers were killed and many others were taken hostage. As the sun rose, organizers played the same trance track that was abruptly halted when the barrage of rockets began.

At 6:29 a.m. — the exact minute Hamas launched its attack — the crowd observed a moment of silence. A woman’s piercing wail broke the quiet and booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers (miles) away.

“When we are here, we are near our loved ones,” said Sigal Bar-On, whose niece, Yuval Bar-On, 25, and her fiancé Moshe Shuva, 34, were killed in the attack two months before they were to be married.

“We can’t understand how a year has passed,” said Shimon Busika, whose 25-year-old son Yarden was killed at the festival.

At 6:31 a.m., four projectiles were launched from Gaza toward the same communities that came under attack last year, without disrupting the ceremony.

The military said another five rockets were launched from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis toward central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv. Two women were lightly wounded, according to first responders, and there was minor damage. The military said it struck the launch sites.

Meanwhile, the families of hostages still held in Gaza gathered near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren.

“We are here to remind (the hostages) that we haven’t forgotten them,” said Shiri Albag, whose daughter Liri is among the captives. In a speech addressing Netanyahu, she said: “We wont let you rest until all of them are back, every last one of them.”

Netanyahu, who has come under heavy criticism for the security lapses on Oct. 7 and for not yet returning all the hostages, spoke at a small ceremony in Jerusalem, saying: “We went through a terrible massacre a year ago and we arose as a nation as lions.”

An official state ceremony is set to air on Monday. It was prerecorded without an audience — apparently to avoid potential disruptions — in the southern city of Ofakim, which was among several communities and army bases that were attacked a year ago.

Anger at Netanyahu’s government prompted families of those killed and taken captive to hold a separate event in Tel Aviv. That event had been set to draw tens of thousands of people but was scaled back due to the threat of missile attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.

Hamas and Hezbollah vow to fight on

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. The war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million people and caused widespread hunger.

“We lost everything we have,” said Liyala al-Shanar, who fled her home in Gaza City. “We live in a tent that doesn’t protect us from the winter cold or the summer heat.”

Hamas remains in control of the territory and its forces have repeatedly regrouped in areas where Israel carried out major operations. On Sunday, Israeli forces encircled the northern town of Jabaliya and launched another major operation there that the military says is aimed at rooting out militants.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets, missiles and drones at Israel even after a wave of Israeli strikes in recent weeks killed most of its top command — including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah — and pounded large areas of Lebanon. Israel launched what has so far been a limited ground operation across the border last week.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.

Israel has also vowed to respond to a ballistic missile attack last week that Iran said was in response to the killing of Nasrallah, top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and one of its own Revolutionary Guard generals.

In a statement on Monday, Hezbollah vowed to continue its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, saying Israel “was and will remain a deadly, aggressive, cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”

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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-wars

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