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How a holy day on October 7 became 'Black Shabbat'
A year after the October 7 attacks in Israel, millions of lives have been turned upside down. Here is how Israel's deadliest day unfolded.
Published 7 October 2024 5:41am
Updated 7 October 2024 1:52pm
By Charis Chang
Source: SBS News
Image: Nearly 1,200 people were killed, including 36 children, in the Hamas' October 7 attack, marking the deadliest day in Israel's history. (Getty / Aris Messinis)
This article contains graphic content
For many, it was the sirens that woke them on 7 October.
The quiet of daybreak was broken by the urgent whirring of air raid alarms around 6.30am.
Others heard the warning while dancing at an outdoor rave celebrating "friends, love and infinite freedom" after a long night of festivities.
The lives of many who heard those sirens were to be changed forever.
The alarms marked the beginning of one of the deadliest days in Israel's history, when a coordinated offensive unleashed by the Islamic militant group Hamas killed around 1,200 people, including 36 children, according to Israeli authorities.
The site of the Supernova music festival was one of the areas worst hit by militants, who killed hundreds of young partygoers. Source: Getty / Gil Cohen-Magen
The onslaught began when thousands of rockets and mortar shells were launched towards southern and central Israel from the Gaza Strip, a coastal Palestinian territory separated from Israel by a six-metre tall wire fence.
The Gaza Strip is a narrow Palestinian territory separated from Israel by a six-metre tall wire fence. Source: SBS News
At the same time, footage of the offensive shows fighters breaching Israel's 65km "iron wall", a smart fence topped with razor wire that uses radars and cameras to detect movement.
Soldiers used explosives to blast through the fencing and a bulldozer to clear the way for motorbikes. Meanwhile, explosives were also dropped on nearby observation towers.
Soldiers used explosives to break through Israel's border fence and deployed a bulldozer to clear the path on 7 October. Source: Getty / Anadolu Agency
Most fighters crossed through breaches in land security barriers separating Gaza and Israel. Source: Getty / Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency
The border appears to have been minimally staffed that day: a Saturday and the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
It's a day that Israelis now call "Black Shabbat".
Nearly 50 locations in Israel were attacked on 7 October, including army bases, a music festival and at least 19 communal settlements. Source: Getty / Jack Guez
Most are located within a few kilometres of the border, although militants reached Ofakim — 25km inside Israeli territory.
A map showing civilian sites targeted during the October 7 attacks. Source: SBS News
Most of those killed were Israeli civilians — 695 people — but the death toll also includes 373 security personnel and 71 foreigners, including workers from countries such as China, the Phillippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, AFP reports.
Militants also seized at least 250 hostages. A year after the operation, 64 people — including two children — are still being held in captivity.
This is how the October 7 attack unfolded and triggered a year-long war that has devastated millions.
Deadly rampage at Supernova festival
Around half of the civilians killed were partygoers attending Supernova, an outdoor trance music festival.
A 3,000-strong crowd had gathered in fields and woods near Re'im — a kibbutz in southern Israel — to watch performances across three stages.
Some campers were enjoying a sunrise dance party when they started to notice smoke in the sky.
"A few minutes later, the music stopped. Then we saw the Iron Dome intercepting rockets," one participant, Almog Senior, 30, told HRW.
An organiser of the event told HRW they started evacuating people from the site around 6.45am but gunmen appeared and opened fire around 8am.
Destroyed cars and personal effects were left scattered around the Supernova festival site after the October 7 attack. Source: Getty / Alexi J. Rosenfeld
The militants went on an hour-long rampage, leaving behind hundreds of dead — many of whom had been burned. The road to the festival was left littered with torched cars.
The road to the Supernova music festival was left littered with abandoned and torched cars. Source: Getty / Jack Guez/AFP
She was later confirmed dead.
Kibbutz safe houses did not stop militants
Militants also went door-to-door in kibbutzim and other communities, shooting residents dead and setting their homes on fire.
While many residents took shelter in their safe rooms, which are generally designed to keep people safe from rockets, they were not protected from gunfire.
Nadav Tzabari, 34, remembers the chilling moment he realised militants were infiltrating the kibbutz at Nahal Oz.
"The first feeling was horror ... because you actually understand that the danger is not coming from missiles. These are actually people whose intention is to kill you."
Militants also went door-to-door in kibbutzim and other communities, shooting residents dead and setting their homes on fire. Source: Getty / OREN ZIV/AFP
In the kibbutz of Be'eri, residents were forced to defend themselves for seven hours before help arrived.
Around 100 civilians were killed — one-tenth of its population — including 10-month-old Mila Cohen, who was shot while hiding with her mother in a safe room.
Sagi Shifroni, 41, described the terror of the assault in Be'eri to HRW, saying he took refuge in his safe room with his five-year-old daughter after being woken by the sound of sirens.
Around 11am he says militants fired at the door and later set his house on fire, forcing him to smash a window in the safe room to escape.
Shifroni had no shirt or shoes on and says he can't remember jumping out of the window with his daughter wrapped in a blanket. He later realised the skin on his feet was peeling off and his body was covered in second and third-degree burns.
Many of the buildings in kibbutz Be'eri were set alight. Source: Getty / Jack Guez/AFP
An found the IDF did not fulfil its mission to defend residents at Be'eri and did not always prioritise civilian lives — even waiting outside the kibbutz for hours while residents were killed inside.
Evidence of sexual violence
A Commission of Inquiry established by the United Nations Human Rights Council examined the October 7 attacks and concluded war crimes had been committed by members of Hamas and others participating in the attack.
In its June 2024 report, the commission found the militants had "deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, [taken] hostages and committed sexual and gender-based violence".
A UN Commission of Inquiry examined the October 7 attacks and concluded that war crimes were committed by Hamas and others involved. Source: Getty / Dan Kitwood
"Women were subjected to gender-based violence during the course of their execution or abduction. Women and women's bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators."
The commission said it found the abduction of children "particularly egregious".
'We are at war': Israel's devastating retaliation
Israel's response to the attack on its citizens has reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble.
By the afternoon of 7 October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had convened a security cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv and declared, "we are at war".
That night, Israeli forces began striking targets in Gaza. Since then, vast swathes of the territory have been devastated by relentless airstrikes.
At least 41,615 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip over the past 12 months, according to the health ministry in Gaza, and another 96,251 wounded.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says more than a quarter of those wounded have sustained life-changing injuries, including severe limb injuries, amputations and major burns.
Last year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the "nightmare in Gaza" as a “crisis of humanity", saying the territory had become a "graveyard for children".
Doctors at al-Shifa hospital, where Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters last year, described dire conditions for patients, including premature babies struggling to survive without access to incubators.
"I never expected in my life that I would put 39 babies side by side on a bed, each with a different disease, and in this acute shortage of medical staff and of milk," Dr Mohamed Tabasha told Reuters.
WHO says just 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain partially functional.
A 14-day siege around the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March decimated much of the hospital and its surrounds. Source: Getty / Omar El Qattaa/Anadolu
A UNICEF official told AFP an estimated 19,000 children are unaccompanied or have been separated from their parents.
Analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, found 58.7 per cent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had likely been damaged since the start of the war.
Analysis of damage in Gaza Strip using Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
Authorities condemn Israel's Gaza operations
The UN's Commission of Inquiry report in July concluded Israel's retaliation against Gaza had also resulted in war crimes, crimes against humanity and other international law violations.
The commission says it "found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed".
Among its other findings, the commission says Israeli authorities have used "starvation as a method of warfare", committed acts of murder or wilful killing, intentionally directed attacks against civilians, committed acts of sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity.
A UN Satellite Centre assessment found that "two-thirds of the total structures in the Gaza Strip have sustained damage" after nearly a year of conflict. Source: Getty / Hani Alshaer/Anadolu
Israel has strongly denied the accusation.
In May, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) , on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Netanyahu rejected the landmark request, saying in a statement: "Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected war crimes claims. Source: Getty / Ohad Zwigenberg/AFP
In recent months, the conflict has continued to spread, with Israel launching attacks in Lebanon targeting militant group Hezbollah, which it claims poses "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel".
World leaders have urged de-escalation, including Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who has and a clear timeline on recognising Palestinian statehood.
So far the calls have remained unheeded.
With reporting by Agence France-Presse
