US President Joe Biden and other senior politicians in the United States have reiterated their support for Israel on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas-led attack on the country.
In a statement on Monday, Biden condemned the “unspeakable brutality” of the assault, which killed 1,139 people and saw about 250 others taken captive in the Gaza Strip.
“On this solemn anniversary, let us bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7th attacks but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day,” said the US president, who held a commemoration at the White House to mark the anniversary.
Rights advocates quickly noted, however, that Biden’s statement failed to express the same level of anger over the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 41,900 Palestinians across the coastal enclave since October 7.
The US president appeared to place the blame on Hamas for the suffering in the territory, saying that October 7 was a “dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day”.
Since the Gaza war began, Biden has been criticised for failing to condemn Israel – the US’s top ally in the Middle East – for its deadly attacks on Palestinians.
The Democrat, who describes himself as a staunch defender of Israel, also has rebuffed calls from rights advocates to condition US assistance to the Israeli government to try to reach a ceasefire to end the war.
Washington provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually and Biden has greenlit $14bn in additional assistance to the US ally since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began in October of last year.
“Today we mark a year of immense suffering for the peoples of Israel and Palestine, as well as the continuing failure of governments to act in the interests of human security and international order,” Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, said on Monday.
“We cannot look away from the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, wounded, orphaned and malnourished as a result of Israel’s ongoing and often indiscriminate assault on Gaza,” Okail said in a statement.
“And we are outraged as the United States government continues to arm this carnage in violation of its own laws, hobbling the diplomacy it is engaged in to end the fighting and stop its spread to Lebanon and beyond.”
Meanwhile, protesters took to the streets across the US to denounce what they say is the Biden administration’s complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as military assaults in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
Thousands of people marched through New York to demand an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
“We’re seeing student groups, labour unions, Orthodox Jewish groups, [and] Jewish Voice for Peace, a very young group that has been organising around the cause of Palestinians,” Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reported from New York City.
Demonstrations were also organised in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, as well as at university campuses across the country where Gaza solidarity encampments were met with a harsh crackdown earlier this year.
Many universities have since clamped down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, giving themselves more power to take tougher action against any future sit-ins or protests.
“The students have had to really adjust their way of protesting,” said Saloomey.
“What I’ve found in talking to them is that they [the students] are being very careful about sharing their plans and locations, but they’re also more angry and more fired up and more committed to the protest movement than ever before,” she added.
Harris, Trump marking anniversary
US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in next month’s election, also denounced the October 7 attacks on Israel.
“We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again,” she said in a statement, adding that she would do “everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated”.
Harris also said she was “heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year”, but she did not place direct blame on Israel for its attacks on the enclave.
“[T]ens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine,” she said.
Like Biden, Harris has faced calls from progressive Democrats to apply pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, including by suspending US weapons transfers to the country.
She has rejected that demand, however, reiterating her unflinching support for Israel.
Monday’s anniversary comes less than a month before the US election on November 5, which is set to be a neck-and-neck fight between Harris and her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.
Harris briefly spoke to reporters and planted a pomegranate tree with her husband on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in Washington, DC, in honour of the victims of the October 7 attack.
For his part, Trump addressed Jewish community leaders at an event at one of his Florida resorts on Monday evening to mark the anniversary.
“The bond between the United States and Israel is strong and enduring,” said Trump, adding that if he is elected, the relationship will “be stronger and closer than it ever was before”.
“We have to win this election,” he told the crowd of supporters.
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