Israel commemorates October 7 attack in silence and tears

Israel remained briefly silent on Tuesday in tribute to the victims of the unprecedented Hamas attack exactly a month ago.

On the esplanade of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, more than a thousand people, mainly students and professors, observed a minute of silence, prayed and sang the national anthem.

“The atrocities have left a terrible scar, a trauma on a personal level, but also on a national level,” said Asher Cohen, president of the university, which counts several graduates among the victims. “But there is hope, there will be a rebirth,” he added.

A teacher who showed the photo of his son and his girlfriend, murdered by Hamas commandos. “They believed in peace,” he said.

In the worst attack since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas commandos, who also kidnapped some 240 people. The operation sparked an intense war in the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, which left more than 10,300 people dead in the territory, including thousands of children, according to the Islamist movement’s health ministry.

Mayaan, 38, who lost his parents on a kibbutz attacked by Hamas, says it is difficult to see the “devastating” images of death and destruction coming from Gaza. “It bothers me when people say ‘I’m pro-Palestinian’ or ‘I’m pro-Israeli,'” said the woman, who asked that her last name not be published, her voice heavy with pain.

“I’m self-righteous. My parents would have said the same thing,” says this employee of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Dozens of people attended a ceremony at the academy, during which candles were lit and “Hatikvah,” the national anthem, meaning “hope” in Hebrew, was emotionally sung.