Israelis mark a year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack with hostages still in Gaza and war growing around them

Tel Aviv — Israelis were marking a full year Monday since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, gathering at the sites of some of the atrocities to honor those killed and demand the release of those still held captive in Gaza. For many, it’s hard to believe that 365 days have passed.

“We didn’t close the story. We are still there in that Shabat — in that Saturday,” Batsheva Yahalomi told CBS News just days ago, as she revisited her former home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Her husband is thought to be among the 101 hostages still held in Gaza. Her son was held hostage for 52 days before being released in a prisoner swap with Hamas in November 2023 — one of 105 Israelis freed in exchange for about 180 Palestinians in the only such exchange negotiated during the year of war.

At the Nova Music Festival site in Israel’s southern desert, the last song played before rockets started raining down one year ago was played again Monday as mourners clung to each other. Hamas terrorists murdered more than 360 people at the festival, and that toll climbed yet again on Monday, a year after the slaughter.

“We are in a just and difficult war, but unlike 80 years ago, the Jews have the ability to defend themselves by themselves, and while fighting against seven different enemies, we will prevail,” Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer at the Nova site on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a memorial in Jerusalem on Monday, where he said Israelis “went through a terrible massacre a year ago, and we stood up as a people, like lions.”

The forum for families of the Oct. 7 hostages announced Monday morning that Idan Shtivi, who was among the dozens of people abducted from the festival, was confirmed to have been killed by Hamas during the attack. His body was taken into Gaza that day, and is still being held there by the group.

The memorial events came as tensions continued to rise across the volatile Middle East. Israel carried out more airstrikes inside Lebanon overnight, where its fight against the Hamas-allied group Hezbollah has intensified rapidly since mid-September.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had also responded to an “immediate threat” of a new Hamas attack in Gaza, the group’s longtime stronghold, striking a hospital there as it intercepted three projectiles fired from the Palestinian territory.

More rockets were fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv on Monday, the IDF and Hamas said, lightly wounding two women in the city. Sirens rang out in Tel Aviv again a few hours later, forcing people making preparations for an evening memorial to take cover.

Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza a year ago, within hours of the group’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

There were weeks of blistering airstrikes before ground forces went into the densely packed enclave. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says almost 42,000 people have been killed by Israel’s military operations in Gaza over the last year — by far the deadliest war ever fought between the two sides. 

Some Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon made it through Israel’s aerial defense systems overnight, meanwhile, landing in the northern city of Haifa and causing several injuries.

In a statement marking 12 months of what he called “the most just war in all our years,” Gallant vowed “to continue to do whatever it takes to defend the homeland, and to be worthy of the legacy of our loved ones, our fallen comrades — citizens and soldiers.”

In a long statement issued Monday morning by the White House, President Biden urged the world to “bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7th attacks but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day.”

The president said, noting his visit to Israel not long after the attacks, that he had “made clear then to the people of Israel: you are not alone. One year later, Vice President Harris and I remain fully committed to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist.”

Mr. Biden said the attacks had “brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of hatred and violence against the Jewish people,” and he reiterated his support for “Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iran.”

In an open letter to Catholics released Monday by the Vatican, Pope Francis said “the fuse of hatred was lit” a year ago, and he lamented that “it did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral of violence, in the shameful inability of the international community and the most powerful countries to silence the weapons and put an end to the tragedy of war.”

“I never tire of repeating that war is a defeat, that weapons do not build the future but destroy it, that violence never brings peace,” said the Catholic leader. “History proves this, yet years and years of conflict seem to have taught us nothing.”