Today is of course the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel, during which some 1200 people were murdered; approximately 800 of those killed were civilians. Some 250 hostages were taken to Gaza.
Ninety-seven hostages remain in Gaza, including four Americans. It is believed that at least 35 of the remaining hostages are dead.
In a statement today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that the remaining hostages "include men, women, young boys, young girls, two babies, and elderly people from more than 25 nations."
The October 7th attacks by Hamas (and members of other Palestinian terror groups, including Islamic Jihad) were medieval: the hunting down of victims at the Nova music festival, the kibbutzim massacres, including the burning of homes, and the people within them; the rapes, including gang rape, and the reported acts of sexual mutilation of some of the murder victims.
So, on this day, one thinks of those who died on October 7th, and their families; those wounded (both physically, and emotionally); and one thinks, with sadness and hope, concerning the remaining hostages, and their families.
One also keeps in mind the suffering of the Palestinian civilians in Gaza--though their suffering, Hamas has made cruelly apparent over time, is not the terror group's priority. (I will have more to say about this in an upcoming post.)
While at the moment a resolution of the Israel/Hamas war seems tragically out of reach, one hopes, deeply, that the war will come to its end soon.
Lastly, I was moved, today, by a ceremony at the Vice Presidential home in Washington. Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, planted a memorial tree on the grounds of the residence, in honor of the victims of October 7th.
In addition to speaking of the terrible events of last October, Ms. Harris, as she has often done, also addressed "the immense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Here is a story about the ceremony, from the Jewish newspaper the Forward.
https://forward.com/fast-forward/661693/kamala-harris-doug-emhoff-october-7-gaza-pomegranate-tree/
