(Jerusalem) Israel gathered on Tuesday, in silence, prayer and tears in tribute to the victims of the unprecedented attack by Hamas a month ago, which traumatized the country.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening for hostages and those missing since the October 7 attack by the Palestinian movement in southern Israel, near the Gaza Strip. .
According to Israeli authorities, more than 240 people are still in the hands of Hamas. At least 1,400 people have died since October 7, the majority civilians killed on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities.
A flame has been lit and is expected to travel to different capitals around the world until the hostages have been freed. “Take them home now!” “, chanted the participants in this rally at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are authorized to pray, located in East Jerusalem occupied and annexed by Israel.
They held up portraits of their loved ones, young adults, but also children and even a 9-month-old baby.
The ceremony began with prayers and religious songs. It continued with calls to release these hostages.
PHOTO JACK GUEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
At least 1,400 people have died since October 7, the majority civilians killed on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities.
“They have been in Gaza for 32 days! said Rachel Goldberg, whose son Hersh was kidnapped at the desert music festival. “They need you, the leaders of the world, the leaders of Israel, to save their lives,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
Already Monday evening, 1,400 candles, bearing the names of the victims of the October 7 attack, were lit in front of the Western Wall.
A little earlier Tuesday, an unusual gathering took place in front of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem: around forty Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims and Christians, observed 15 minutes of silence in memory of “all those who have died since the start of the war.”
One man sang a prayer for the dead in Hebrew before another, a Christian, said a prayer: “Many people in this land that You call holy are in mourning.”
“Empty chair”
This day of commemoration began in the morning, with a minute of silence, at 11 a.m., in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in the country.
On the tree-lined esplanade of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, more than a thousand people prayed together and sang the national anthem.
“The atrocities have left a terrible scar, trauma on a personal level but also on a national level,” said Asher Cohen, the president of the university.
At the microphone, testimonies followed one another, interrupted by tears.
Shay Dickmann, a 28-year-old medical student, came to talk about her cousin, Carmel Gat, taken hostage on Kibbutz Beeri, which is located less than 5 kilometers from Palestinian territory. She should have returned to university in a month.
“In every classroom you walk into, every time you see an empty chair, remember that Carmel could have been sitting there. But instead, she is in Gaza,” she told the gathering.
“Don’t let this reality become normal,” implored this student, wearing a black T-shirt with her cousin’s photo printed on it.
Several dozen people also attended a ceremony at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, where candles were lit.
“I don’t think there is a single person who is not affected by these horrible attacks,” said Sharon Balaban, an artist teacher at the school. “Everyone knows someone who has been injured, killed or impacted.”
Several other rallies took place across the country, and abroad.
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The army is shelling the Palestinian territory, where more than 10,000 people, including more than 4,000 children, have been killed in a month of war, according to the Hamas health ministry.