Vigils, protests around the world commemorate the anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel

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Vigils, commemorations and acts of remembrance were planned across the world on Monday to mark one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as world leaders called for an end to antisemitism and the release of Israeli hostages.

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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden host a somber memorial ceremony at the White House to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack. The Bidens looked on as Rabbi Aaron Alexander recited the Jewish remembrance prayer for victims.

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Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance condemned the Biden administration on its actions in the past year since the October 7th attack on Israel.

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Josef Federman, a regional news director for The Associated Press, on Monday explained how Israel is marking the the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war and what it means going forward.

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Vigils, commemorations and acts of remembrance were held in cities across Europe to mark a year since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. (AP video by Philipp Jenne, Srdjan Nedeljkovic, Bela Szandelszky)

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One year after Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the conflict in Gaza, thousands across Latin America took part in vigils and demonstrations in support of both Israel and the Palestinians. (AP Video: Victor Caivano, Cesar Barreto, Mauricio Cuevas, Marko Alvarez)

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The Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the flag of Israel in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

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Candles and flowers are laid at the entrance of the synagogue to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

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A woman shouts slogans with a painting of late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in front of the Lebanese Embassy during a pro-Palestinian rally in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

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Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate outside City Hall, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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Candles and flowers are laid at the entrance of the synagogue to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

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People embrace after lightning candles at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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Survivor Alon Gat, Rabi Yehuda Teichtal and Berlin mayor Kai Wegner, centre from left, hold a candle-lighting ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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Two women console each other after making a makeshift memorial as members of the Jewish community gather at a park to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

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Members of the Jewish community gather at a park in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

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Members of the Jewish community wave electronic candles as they gather at a park in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

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School children take part in a rally organized by Pakistan Markazi Muslim League party, to protest against Israeli airstrikes and to show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza and Lebanon, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

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A wreath is brought to a plaque honoring Alex Dancyg, a Polish-Israeli man who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and later killed, in Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack, in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

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People take part in a pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

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People light 1200 candles in front of the synagogue in Duesseldorf, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, marking the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

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People hold pictures of hostages as they attend a pro-Israel vigil on the anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza in front of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)

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Attendees react during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza in front of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

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The Brandenburg Gate is illuminated in solidarity with Israel, marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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An activist holds a picture of the hostage during a commemoration to mark the one-year anniversary of the Israel Hamas war in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

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Thousands of Houthi supporters raise Hezbollah flags and posters of late leader Hassan Nasrallah during a rally to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the war in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

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A woman views photos of Palestinian victims who were killed during the Israel war against Hamas, at a photo exhibition, (Gaza Habibti), Gaza my love, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the war in the Gaza Strip, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

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Pro-Palestinian Orthodox Jews demonstrate during a protest, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

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Police watch as attendees march near McGill University campus during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza, in Montreal, Canada, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

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Activist Greta Thunberg, left, attends a pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

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A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Spanish, “Freedom for Palestine, from the river to the sea,” during a march in Lima, Peru, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march in support of the Palestinians, in Lima, Peru, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

By JUSTIN SPIKE, DAVID R. MARTIN and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

NEW YORK (AP) — Commemorations and protests unfolded across the world on Monday to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, an assault that sparked a war that has devastated the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip, fueled bloodshed in other Mideast lands and stirred protests and divisions far away.

Those divisions were visible in New York, where a crowd gathered for an evening remembrance ceremony in Central Park even as pro-Palestinian protesters converged on a corner of the park less than a mile away.

Hamas militants’ surprise cross-border attack last year killed about 1,200 people. Another 250 were taken hostage; around 100 remain in captivity, with many of them feared dead. The attack, on a major Jewish holiday, shattered Israelis’ sense of security and left the world facing the prospect of a major conflict in the Middle East.

“The unfathomable horrors I experienced that morning have transformed me, along with every single Israeli and every single Jew,” Natalie Sanandaji, a survivor from a music festival where the attackers killed hundreds, told the audience in Central Park.

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attack by waging a war against Hamas in Gaza, where the fighting has killed over 41,000 people and displaced around 1.9 million. The conflict has spread in the region, where Israel also is fighting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, facing escalating threats from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and contending with a mounting conflict with Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

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In New York, protesters spread a large Palestinian flag on a street near the New York Stock Exchange early Monday afternoon, while a smaller group of counterprotesters held an Israeli flag. The pro-Palestinian group grew to a blocks-long column as it marched through Manhattan streets, at one point holding a banner that read “war begets war” on the steps of the New York Public Library.

Associated Press journalists saw several people being taken into police custody at various points in the march. Police said multiple arrests were made; no further information was immediately available.

While the protesters paused to conduct a Muslim evening prayer at the southwestern corner of Central Park, the parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra shared their anguish from the park’s SummerStage venue.

“We would never have imagined we would still be standing here a whole year later, with no news of him,” his mother, Orna Neutra, told hundreds of people at an event that drew New York’s governor, mayor, U.S. senators and other elected officials. Her son, a New York-born Israeli soldier, turns 23 next week.

At Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, a New Jersey high school group viewed an exhibition about the Tribe of Nova music festival in Re’im, Israel, where over 360 people were killed.

“I feel like that really could have been me there,” said student Ellie Solomon. Many festivalgoers were close to her age, she noted.

“It’s important for us to remember them and honor them because they didn’t deserve anything that happened to them,” she added.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also toured the exhibition and emerged hoping that it gave people “an understanding of what really happened” and made them more tolerant “and more committed to finding peace in our society and peace across the globe.”

In an echo of campus protests across the U.S. last spring, activists gathered again at colleges Monday. About 200 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted and held banners and flags at the University of California, Los Angeles, while a few other demonstrators held Israeli flags.

Six months after counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA, some people wore helmets to Monday’s demonstration in case of violence. The protest was peaceful.

Hundreds of members of the Argentine Jewish community, the largest in Latin America, held a ceremony in Buenos Aires in memory of the victims of the Oct. 7 attack. A similar ceremony took place in Santiago, Chile.

Others took part in protests in support of the Palestinians in Lima, Peru; Bogota, Colombia and Mexico City, demanding an end to the conflict.

In Europe, where countries have sought to tamp down antisemitic and anti-Muslim sentiment, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Hamburg that “we stand beside” Israelis, and he also pointed to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

The chancellery in Berlin was adorned with a yellow ribbon commemorating Israeli hostages, and the names of people killed and kidnapped were read out at the Brandenburg Gate.

French President Emmanuel Macron met in Paris with relatives of hostages and of the dead. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attended a memorial service at the Nova festival site.

The Vatican took up a collection for the people of Gaza and published a letter expressing Pope Francis’ solidarity.

In the Polish capital of Warsaw, the Jewish community paid tribute to Alex Dancyg, a Polish-born Holocaust educator who was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz on Oct. 7. Israel believes he died in captivity.

In Australia, thousands of people attended vigils in Sydney and Melbourne, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joining the latter event. A day after thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied across Australia’s cities, hundreds gathered amid a heavy police presence at Sydney town hall to remember Palestinians killed in the conflict.

In Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, schoolchildren took part in a pro-Palestinian rally organized by the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League party.

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Vejpongsa reported from Philadelphia and Spike from Budapest, Hungary. Contributing were Associated Press journalists Jennifer Peltz, John Minchillo and Ted Shaffrey in New York, Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Diane Jeantet in Paris, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand.