Remembering The October 7 Massacre One Year On
IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Halevi: “We are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated.”
The morning of October 7, 2023, began with horror and initial confusion. I woke up to news reports of massive rocket attacks on southern Israel and dozens of Israeli casualties. The death toll rose at a staggering rate with every passing hour.
That feeling turned into a deep sense of helplessness as I watched the clips of Hamas terrorists committing horrific crimes against Israeli soldiers and civilians alike. Those brutal images are etched in my memory to this day.
The terrorists had breached the Israeli border defenses and taken everyone by surprise. And behind Hamas terrorists came hoards of men — who the mainstream media has since referred to as ‘Gaza civilians’. They, too, rejoiced in rape and murder. They took Israeli men, women, and children captive. They cheered as the lifeless and naked bodies of the hostages were paraded through the streets of Gaza. They punched and spat on them amid triumphant chants of Allahu Akbar.
The enemy struck Israel with an element of devastating surprise. The October 7 massacre was unleashed on a Saturday — a Sabbath and the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
As the dust from the horrific attack settled, nearly 1200 Israelis were reported dead, and 251, including women, infants, and elderly, had been taken as hostages to Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published the accounts of how the massacre began:
At 6:30 A.M., 2,500 rockets were fired toward Israel. Not only the towns near Gaza were hit, but also towns dozens of kilometers from the Green Line. Sirens went off across the south of the country, as well as in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The attack caused massive civilian casualties, with direct hits on residential areas including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, and Sderot.
While Israeli civilians were forced to take cover in bomb shelters all across the country, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists invaded Israel. The terrorists fired mortars at guard towers located on the demarcation line with Gaza and broke through the protective barrier on ATVs and cars; some of them flew into civilian areas on paragliders. One of Hamas’ elite commando units managed to get to the beach near Kibbutz Zikim via boat.
The terrorists used explosive devices and bulldozers to destroy the fences between Israel and Gaza. In total, the terrorists broke through the fences in more than 100 places. The terrorists targeted villages around Gaza, where they carried out a full-scale invasion and abducted hostages from their homes. Additionally, IDF military bases in southern Israel were targeted.
WATCH: IDF releases hitherto unseen footage of soldiers and civilians fighting side by side on Oct 7 pic.twitter.com/d03923dUOM
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 6, 2024
After a year of fighting in Gaza, more than a hundred Israeli hostages are still unaccounted for, many of them likely murdered or tortured to death by Hamas and its helpers in Gaza. For the Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity the ordeal of rape and torture continues to this day.
#October7Massacre: These are the 101 Israeli hostages still being held captive in Gaza!
Don't look away. Say their names.
Demand their release! pic.twitter.com/Fl6JlWzcqV
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) October 7, 2024
Rape and mutilation were systematically deployed by Hamas to terrorize and humiliante Israeli civilians on October 7. “Hamas’s attack on October 7 included brutal sexual assaults, carried out systematically and deliberately towards Israeli civilians,” an investigation by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel concluded. “The genitals of both women and men were brutally mutilated, and sometimes weapons were inserted into them. The terrorists did not stop at shooting; they also cut and mutilated sexual organs and other body parts with knives.”
Nowhere was it more glaringly visible than at the site of the Nova music festival, a gathering of young people near Kibbutz Reim. Dozens of Hamas terrorists on Paragliders descended on a crowd of young revelers. The site of the dance festival was turned into a killing field. Terrorists raped young men and women amid corpses of their murdered friends. They killed 364 people at the site and took more than 40 hostage.
The deranged terrorists even took dead bodies as trophies and bargaining chips back to Gaza.
As Israelis mark the somber anniversary, the IDF troops are still working on plans to rescue alive hostages and retrieve the bodies of the dead ones. Despite all the odds, the Israeli special forces did succeed in rescuing some hostages.
These operations and the ongoing military offensive in Gaza came at an immeasurable price for the IDF and the Israeli people. “A total of 728 soldiers, reservists, and local security officers have been killed and another 4,576 have been wounded in the war since October 7 — the latest on Sunday. Of them, 346 were killed and 2,299 were wounded during the ground offensive in Gaza,” The Times of Israel reported Monday.
A message from President of Israel @Isaac_Herzog to Jewish communities around the world, on the anniversary of the October 7th terror attack pic.twitter.com/1dp494Jxon
— Office of the President of Israel (@IsraelPresident) October 6, 2024
Hamas’ military capabilities defeated, says IDF chief
The Israeli armed forces have destroyed Hamas’ military capabilities as the Gaza offensive enters its second year, IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said ahead of the October 7 anniversary.
IDF thwarts Hamas attack on October 7 anniversary
The IDF on Monday morning carried out preemptive airstrikes in Gaza to avert Hamas’ plans to stage large-scale attacks to mark the October 7 anniversary.
” The IDF struck Hamas terror targets and launchers throughout the Gaza Strip to thwart an immediate threat,” the Israeli military said early morning. “A short while ago, the IAF [Israeli Air Force] struck Hamas launch posts and underground terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli news website Ynet reported Sunday that the Israeli troops were “reinforced in anticipation of potential attacks on troops in Gaza or rocket fire, possibly reaching central Israel, on October 7 anniversary.”
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The Bride and I remember the plight of Israel in our prayers daily. We will continue.
.
It’s hard to believe it was a year ago, still seems like yesterday
My heart and support is for Israel’s victory to be complete
How did the slaughter of innocent women and children (and men) make it acceptable for the Leftists to unleash suck vile antisemitism?
I am probably a naïve fool, but prior to Oct 7 I would have said anti-Semitism was largely gone from American society, just as the Left’s so-called systemic racism against blacks was long gone
The fact that the ugliest kind of bigotry flourished and grew so rapidly in the wake of that atrocity continues to shock me. That a belief so based on fantasy, blood libel and lies is so widespread, particularly among the left-wing young, was apparently bubbling beneath the surface.
I despair.
“I am probably a naïve fool, but prior to Oct 7 I would have said anti-Semitism was largely gone from American society…”
I am probably a naïve fool, too. I would have thought that after Israeli women and children were raped, murdered, baked in ovens, taken hostage—-that the tide would have turned in their favor rather than against them. But I was wrong.
The news media claims that public sentiment has turned against them. What a lie. It didn’t turn at all. It was there all along just waiting to rise to the suface.
You are naive. This web site has been documenting the growing pro-Palestinian movement on US college campuses over the last decade. The growth of support for the Palestinians comes with increased hatred for Israelis and, since there are so few of them here, Jews in general. Our young women, spoiled, entitled, and sexually active, seem to have embraced the Palestinian cause. Apparently, they admire those macho Hamas guys who rape and murder at will. And who would happily do the same to them, if they could. Just one ladder rung smarter than the Gays for Palestines movement. But nothing comes close to the Jews for Palestine group, which is advocating for their own elimination from the face of the earth.
Our naivete resides in thinking barbarians no longer exist. The events of Oct 7th revealed for all to see that they still do. There are some who still refuse to take their heads out of the sand and see otherwise.
Because in their mind, “Oppressed [Palestinians] GOOD, oppressors {Israelis] bad bad BAD.”
There is not and there will never be a Palestine.
It is a fictional construct of muslim conquest wars
It was the land of the Philisties before Israel conquered them, not after. There are no more hittites, amorites, perizzites, hivites, jebusites or philistines. But there will always be Jews.
One day in the late 19th Century, Queen Victoria asked Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli this question:
“Mr. Prime Minister, what evidence can you give me of the existence of God?”
Disraeli thought for a moment and then replied, “The Jew, your majesty.”
Think of it, according to Disraeli, the primary evidence that God exists is the existence of the Jewish people. A people who in 586 BC were deported to Babylon, yet returned after 70 years to rebuild a nation. Who were again brutally massacred and dispersed by the Romans in 70 AD, yet after countless centuries of Diaspora, expulsions, pogroms, ghettos, and attempts at genocidal extermination, have clung to their faith, their customs — and now after some 2500 years of wandering have returned to the land promised by God to their ancestors. A new nation began in that land in 1948 named after their ancestor Jacob, whose divinely appointed name Israel means “Prince with God.” (quoted)
I think you’ve nailed their level of logical thinking. Rudimentary.
lets also celebrate israels refusal to allow the fjb led globalist revolt against their plan to actually win the war
Woke up, got out of bed. Dragged a comb across my head
Turned on Faux
A woman read her credentials and spoke of a career in humanitarian crises.
She went on to posit hurricanes, earthquakes and such are humanitarian crises, and gaza is genocide
Even Faux news is carrying water for the genocidal islamists
Hmas is not a race
HAmas brought this on themselves
You don’t hide lethal assets in hospitals and schools and point the finger of morality at the jews who merely resist annihilation
That was when I turned it off
So I turned the TV on again this evening and found it on Chicken-Noodle-News (CNN)
I better have the remote and cable box examined… 🙂
Nothing of this unimaginable scale could have happened but for the coup of November 4th 2020.
Trump cut off the $$
Biden (or whoever is actually running the circus) turned it back on
Habah l’hargecha hashkem l’hargo
If someone is coming to kill you, rise against him and kill him first
In my opinion Israel’s response to the Oct 7 massacre has been insufficient. Let’s face it, civilians took part in the atrocities. There are no innocents Gaza. Hamas and Gaza should have been given an ultimatum: release the hostages within 24 hours or Gaza will cease to exist. All supplies cut and off and thermobaric weapons will be used.
If Jews in Israel and elsewhere don’t stand strong, we will see a repeat of the 1930s. Every adult Jew the world over should be armed. “Nothing says never again like an armed Jew.” The signs are ominous, antisemitism like the shingles virus is something which lies dormant for a long time, and then suddenly breaks out.
“brutal images are etched in my memory to this day”
“response insufficient”
I agree, I have watched this my whole adult life, I think that the only way there can be peace in Palestine is to impose permanent peace on Arabs currently in . Make all of Palestine free from the river to the sea of belligerents.
At the risk of bringing down the wrath of the administators, I strongly recommend the article on Yahoo by Allison Pearson, originally published in The Telegraph. It’s a riveting account of the October 7 massacre. The tiele says is all: “Not One Girl Could Be Shown to Her Parents.” Expect to be heartbroken.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/saw-holocaust-many-dead-bodies-070000915.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb