One Year Since 10/07

A Year of Tragedy and Chaos in Israel and the Middle East

Just over one year ago, Hamas launched an attack on Israel that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 human beings. Over 200 more people were taken hostage, ripped from their lives and their families. Among the victims were 46 American citizens. For the Israelis, 10/7 was a national trauma reminiscent of the Holocaust. To put the scale of this tragedy in perspective relative to Israel’s total population, it would be the equivalent of 40,000 Americans killed; 13 times the number of lives lost on 9/11.

The opening stages of Hamas’ offensive were focused almost entirely on soft civilian targets around the Gaza Strip and included large gatherings like the Nova Music Festival. Women, children, and grandparents were butchered in front of their closest relatives, while hundreds more were kidnapped. The harrowing testimonies of the survivors of 10/7 should serve as a reminder of the barbarism and cruelty of Hamas to anyone who still naïvely views the terror group as freedom fighters or a libera…