One year after Oct 7 attack: Israelis, Palestinians reflect on pain and loss as war grinds on

Hamas, Hezbollah mark anniversary by raining rockets across Israel

REIM, Israel Israel held solemn memorials against the backdrop of continued fighting on the first anniversary of the deadliest day in the country's history - the Hamasled attack on Oct 7, 2023, which is now spiralling into a far wider conflict in the Middle East.

Israel's enemies - Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah - marked the day by raining rockets across Israel, with some slipping past air defence systems and slamming into buildings and homes.

The anniversary caps 12 months of profound loss and trauma for both Israelis and Palestinians.

On Oct 7, 2023, Hamas militants broke through the border from Gaza into southern Israel, killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages.

Hours after that attack, the Israeli military tore across Gaza. In the 12 months since then, it has reduced large swathes of the enclave to rubble. That relentless offensive against Gaza has so far killed close to 42,000 Palestinians.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog began the Oct 7 commemoration with a moment of silence at 6.29am local time (11.29am in Singapore) the exact time of the attacks - Kibbutz Reim in northern Israel, the site of a music festival where hundreds were killed by Hamas.

Songs and prayers were accompanied by the resounding booms and sharp cracks of Israeli strikes just across the border in Gaza.

The organisers - family members of those killed - had planned to sound a siren for a minute, but the security authorities asked them not to, as they feared the crowd would confuse it for a warning of incoming rocket fire.

Instead, at 6.29am, after hearing the track that the crowd was dancing to a year ago when the assault began, the hundreds who had gathered stood for a minute of silence to mark the moment. It was broken by a bereaved mother's piercing cries.