The Bay Area's Jewish community gathered on Monday to remember the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
In Palo Alto, hundreds gathered to remember the victims at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center.
The Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 was deadliest day in the country’s history since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 men, women and children were killed. While more than 250 others were taken hostage.
Among those who spoke on Monday night were people who lost friends and family that day and those who have loved ones still being held hostage.
Tributes were held across the Bay Area on Monday evening. There was another gathering at Congregation Emanuel in San Francisco.
Monday was also a painful reminder of the devastating war that followed and the lives lost in Gaza.
Over the last year, according to local officials, nearly 42,000 people have been killed in Israel’s yearlong assault on Gaza, including more than 16 thousand children. And more than 2,000 have been killed in Lebanon, the majority dying in the last few weeks, according to Lebanese officials.
“I recall when the Israeli violence in Gaza began, we thought it would be a few days. A few days became a few weeks and then, a few months,” Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR SF Bay Area.
The California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations or CAIR released a statement Monday night, urging the Biden administration to force a ceasefire.
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Jocelyn Moran has more in the video above.
