Middle East: 1,000 days after Hamas attack: Israel remembers terror victims

With nationwide protests, numerous Israelis have commemorated the massacre of the Islamist terrorist organization 1,000 days after October 7, 2023 Hamas remembered. The first commemoration ceremony began early in the morning at a crossroads in the Galilee in the north of the country. Numerous other events were planned throughout the day.

During a rally on the so-called Geiselplatz in the center of Tel Aviv, the German-Israeli Rom Braslavski said, according to the daily newspaper “The Times of Israel”: “I was incarcerated for two whole years Gaza held. We now commemorate 1,000 days, but for me it was an eternity.” He added: “I lived through 1,000 lives in these 1,000 days.” The war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip may be over, but his “personal war” against post-traumatic stress disorder continues every single day.

The attack on Israel by the Palestinian organization Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip, triggered the devastating Gaza War. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. Israel’s government and military reject allegations of war crimes and genocide.

Harsh criticism from the opposition

The opposition accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of trying to cover up their responsibility for the failures before October 7 and on the day of the massacre.

The opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which then became one of the main scenes of terror. According to the Kan broadcaster, he described the massacre as “the worst catastrophe in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” The warning signs were apparent, but the government has since tried to evade responsibility. Even 1,000 days later, “all fronts are still open” in the regional war. The right-wing religious government has left Israel with “chaos and anarchy,” said Lieberman, who previously headed the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry.

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