One Year After Oct. 7, Peace Seems More Elusive Than Ever

On this day last year, Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killed more than 1,200 Israelis, committed atrocities and took more than 250 people back to Gaza as hostages. We are still living in the aftermath.

Across Israel and around the world today, solemn memorials were held to commemorate the victims and survivors of the deadliest day in the country’s history. At a ceremony in a kibbutz just outside Gaza, explosions from Israeli airstrikes could be heard — a reminder that the Oct. 7 attacks set off a war that continues to spread, with no end in sight.

That war centers on Israel’s insistence on destroying Hamas and freeing the Israeli hostages, but it has spread to Lebanon and Iran, and peace in the Middle East seems more elusive than ever. The Israeli military today mounted attacks on two fronts.

The war has also become a battle over narratives. For Israel, Oct. 7 summoned in Jews every devouring specter of the Holocaust. But as Gaza has turned into a mass death trap — with more than 40,000 people killed, mostly civilians — Palestinians and some international leaders have criticized Israel’s response and accused it of war crimes.

In the U.S., many American Jews reconnected with Jewish communities. The war led to mass protests on college campuses and is now an important election topic: Muslim and Arab American voters have become discontent with Democrats, particularly in the swing state of Michigan.

For more: Here are images that have defined the war.