One year after Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel, leading to a declaration of war and a retaliatory military campaign that has devastated the Gaza Strip, Montrealers are set to gather and take part in several commemorative events.
Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and led to about 250 others being taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has killed at least 41,500 people in an ongoing air and ground military offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
About 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes and at least 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — most by the Israeli army and some by Israeli settlers.
On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said 728 of its soldiers have died in Gaza in the last year.
The latest chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reverberated across the world, including Montreal.
In the last year, the city has seen countless protests, many of them calling for a ceasefire, denouncing the military response to Hamas’s attack and accusing Israel of committing genocide. There was also a two-month-long encampment at McGill University’s downtown campus to protest the school’s financial and academic ties with Israel.
Other gatherings called for the return of remaining hostages in Gaza, denounced a rise in antisemitic incidents and called out different levels of government for not doing enough to curb them.
On Monday, a student vigil is planned in front of McGill University’s Roddick Gates at around 12:30 p.m., to honour the people who were killed and taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack, according to a news release from Federation CJA, a Jewish community organization.
CJA is also planning a separate event on Monday evening, but its location has not been made public. The McGill and Concordia University chapters of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) have organized a march that will begin at Concordia’s downtown Hall building this afternoon and end at the Roddick Gates.
Last week, Montreal police put in place a “visibility plan” to help foster a sense of security around the city. Police are calling for people taking part in rallies or protests to do so compliance with the law.
McGill has also implemented security measures, restricting access to its campuses.
As people gather in Montreal and elsewhere, the violence in the Middle East continues.
In recent weeks, Israel’s conflict with Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has escalated sharply, leading to Israeli airstrikes and a ground offensive into Lebanon as well as Hezbollah and Iran launching rockets into Israel.
The Lebanese Health Ministry says more than 1,400 people in the country have been killed as the Israeli military campaign has intensified.
Lebanese, Jewish and Iranian Montrealers share their stories and concerns as the fighting between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran intensifies.