‘We are all still in pain’: Oct. 7 anniversary arrives as new footage of attack emerges
Israel at warHerzog: We aim for ‘space for national mourning’

‘We are all still in pain’: Oct. 7 anniversary arrives as new footage of attack emerges

IDF chief: Commemoration is day of ‘deep soul-searching’ as Israel continues fight ‘for our right to be a free people in our land’

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks in a video statement from the Tel Nof Airbase in central Israel, October 2, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks in a video statement from the Tel Nof Airbase in central Israel, October 2, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israel on Sunday evening prepared to mark the first anniversary of the worst terror attack in its history, as the wounds of the October 7 massacre still feel raw, many of the bereaved continue to seek answers about their loved ones, the plight of the hostages looms over commemorations and fighting still rages on several fronts.

President Isaac Herzog vowed to “make space for national mourning,” as military chief Herzi Halevi promised to undergo a deep soul-searching, while the IDF released never-before-seen footage from the October 7 onslaught, as many questions still remain about the chaos and turmoil of that day.

“A year has passed since life came to a halt, the skies darkened, and all of us witnessed the monstrous cruelty of the enemy that sought to bring destruction upon the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Israeli society,” said Herzog in a statement on Sunday.

“We are all still in pain, and we seek to make space for national mourning, for the tears over the terrible disaster that struck us,” he said, announcing a three-day tour of the Gaza border communities devastated by the attack. “I pledge — we will rebuild and restore everything anew, and that rebuilding will not be complete until the hostages return home.”

Halevi, meanwhile, said the first anniversary of the massacre “is not only a day of remembrance but also a day calling for a deep soul-searching. To recognize failures and learn from them, while examining the challenges, those that have been and those that are yet to come.”

The IDF chief said that Israel’s ongoing “complex, multi-front war” is a war “for our right to be a free people in our land.”

“For a year now, we have been in the midst of a complex, multi-front war, with many significant and extensive achievements. Many challenges still lie ahead. IDF soldiers are deployed and fighting with strength on all fronts without stopping,” he wrote in a missive to troops.

“A year has passed since October 7, the day we failed in our mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel. We are now in the Ten Days of Repentance [between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur],” he said. “We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve… we are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7 is never repeated.”

Ahead of the first anniversary of the massacre, the IDF published previously unreleased footage from the onslaught.

The first clip shows troops of the elite Multidomain Unit, or “Ghost” Unit, operating in Kibbutz Re’im on the morning of October 7.

During the battle against dozens of Hamas terrorists, the commander of the unit, Col. Roi Levy, 44, was killed, along with another officer, Cpt. Yotam Ben Bassat, 24.

A second video published by the IDF on Sunday shows never-before-seen footage of the scene of the battle at Sderot’s police station, after Hamas terrorists took control of the building, killing several officers.

The video was filmed from the tank of the then-commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, Col. Benny Aharon, the IDF said.

Horrors at Netiv Ha’asara

Channel 12 news on Sunday aired more extensive and unedited footage of the horrors carried out in the home of Gil Taasa, a firefighter who lived in the border community of Netiv Ha’asara.

The video shows Gil and two of his sons running for the backyard bomb shelter amid the early morning rocket sirens. Later, terrorists are seen bursting into the backyard and throwing a grenade inside the shelter. Gil jumps on the grenade and is killed, saving the lives of his children, Koren and Shay, who were wounded. The terrorists force the kids back into the apartment, where one of them rummages through their fridge, ignoring the pleas of the bleeding children, as he casually sips from their bottle of Coca-Cola.

After the terrorists left the apartment, the two boys ran to the nearby home of their mother, Sabine — who was separated from Gil, and was living in an attached apartment. They were ultimately rescued alive. The Taasas’ older son, Or, was slain separately that day, at the Zikim Beach, where he was out fishing with friends.

The original footage from inside the Taasa home was part of the IDF-compiled film of Hamas atrocities screened for local and international journalists in the weeks and months following the Hamas onslaught. It was not aired in Israel until March 2024, when Channel 12’s investigate program Uvda published portions of the pixelated footage.

In November 2023, Sabine Taasa said she did not want the footage to be aired, saying: “I don’t want it to come out. I’ll never agree to it. I commemorate their lives, not their deaths.”

Or Taasa, left, and Gil Taasa (Courtesy)

Months later, Sabine approved the footage for publication, saying that she wanted the world to see the atrocities. Speaking to a meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva last month, Sabine said her youngest son, Shay, lost sight in one of his eyes in the attack, and “cannot sleep without me. He needs me 24/7.”

She said her son calls her “every minute,” and if an hour goes by without them speaking, he tells her: “Mama, I was pretty sure that something bad happened to you. I don’t want you to die.”

Last month, the IDF confirmed that it had killed Ahmed Fawzi Nasser Muhammad Wadiyya, the terrorist who led the massacre in Netiv Ha’asara and who drank cola in the Taasa family home, in an airstrike in Gaza. PJC

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