Israel Commemorates Lives Lost on 1 Year Anniversary of October 7th Hamas Attack
- Milton Quintanilla Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Oct 08, 2024
Israel is observing a somber day of commemoration on Monday in light of the October 7 attacks by Hamas exactly one year ago that left more than 1,200 people dead and over 200 taken hostage. As reported by CNN, hundreds gathered at the site of the Nova festival where the last attack took place, while additional memorials were held in Tel Aviv and at a Kibbutz Nir Oz, where one in four residents were killed or taken hostage by Hamas.
As a whole, Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people and has led to a widening conflict. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country now faces war on seven fronts, naming Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel’s defense minister told CNN, “Everything is on the table” after Iran fired a barrage of missiles on the country last week.
Over the weekend, the United States continued to organize flights for American citizens to leave Lebanon, bringing the total number of US citizens, legal permanent residents and their family members evacuated to about 900, according to a State Department spokesperson.
“There was another flight that left today from Beirut to Istanbul,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a briefing. “That flight had approximately 150 passengers on it, American citizens, legal permanent residents and their family members.”
Miller noted that none of the flights organized by the US have been full and that there has been a total of eight flights with 300 seats available on each for a total of 2,400 available seats, of which about 900 have been filled.
Additionally, the US continues to reserve seats on commercial flights for US citizens to leave Lebanon, bringing the total to 868 seats reserved.
“We don’t know exactly how many of those have been filled because we don’t get an exact number, but we know that a significant proportion of those 868 seats have been filled,” said Miller.
The spokesperson also shared that around 8,500 Americans in Lebanon have contacted the State Department for information about possibly leaving the country, while others have not chosen to leave.
“We advise them to leave, and we’ve been making these seats available, and we’ll continue to make them available as long as there is demand and as long as the security situation demands it,” said Miller, who noted that many of the US citizens in Lebanon are “making daily assessments about their situation.”
CNN’s Impact Your World launched a donation page where funds will go to organizations working to provide humanitarian efforts in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Amir Levy/Stringer
