Vigils, protests as US marks October 7 attack, Israel’s war on Gaza

Politicians focused their words on Israeli victims, while pro-Palestinian protesters gathered for planned demonstrations.

Events are being held throughout the United States to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 attack and the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Political leaders focused their commemorations on the Israeli victims of the October 7 attack, which killed 1,139 people.

US President Joe Biden on Monday condemned the “unspeakable brutality” of the attack and paid tribute to the victims, including American citizens killed and kidnapped, while reiterating that he remained committed to Israel’s right to defend itself.

He was, however, less equivocal in his remarks on Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 41,909 Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave, forcing the majority of Gaza’s population to flee their homes.

Biden said it was a “dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day”.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted a sombre memorial ceremony at the White House on Monday to mark one year since October 7, 2023, when Palestinian fighters broke through the barrier between Gaza and Israel and carried out surprise attacks on military bases and several Israeli communities.

Pro-Palestine protests are expected to take place across the US, as demonstrators call out what they say is US complicity in war crimes committed in Gaza, as well as in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

A major protest is scheduled for New York, where organisers plan for people marching to spread out across the city from a starting point on Wall Street.

People pray as they attend a demonstration near the New York Stock Exchange, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in New York City, the United States, October 7, 2024 [David Dee Delgado/Reuters]

Gatherings will also be held in other cities, including Washington, DC and Los Angeles, and at university campuses, where pro-Palestinian sit-ins earlier this year led to attacks from the police and from pro-Israel protesters.

Many universities have since clamped down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, giving themselves more power to take tougher action against any future sit-ins or protests.

Harris ‘heartbroken’

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the upcoming US election, made her own comments on Monday, saying; “We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again.” She added that she would do “everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated”.

Harris also offered her commiserations to the Palestinian victims, but did not place direct blame on Israel for carrying out the actions that have led to mass civilian suffering.

“I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year,” Harris said. “[T]ens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine.”

Pro-Israeli demonstrators take part in a rally hosted by the Philos Project on the anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war’s beginning, in Washington, DC, the United States on October 7, 2024 [Leah Millis/Reuters]

Harris and her Republican opponent in the election, former US President Donald Trump, are marking the anniversary as they approach the final weeks of the campaign during a widening conflict in the Middle East.

Trump will speak before Jewish community leaders at one of his Florida resorts in the Miami suburb of Doral. Harris will briefly speak to journalists and plant a pomegranate tree with her husband on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in honour of the victims of the October 7 attack.

In an excerpt released from an interview with the CBS News programme 60 Minutes that will air Monday night, Harris appeared to avoid answering a question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considered “a real close ally” of the US. She instead rephrased the question to ask: “Do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is ‘yes’.”

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Al Jazeera and news agencies