BOSTON – It was a year ago that a terrorist attack by Hamas killed 1,200 men, women and children in Israel, including 46 Americans. It has led to widespread conflict in the Middle East, killing an estimated 40,000 Palestinians.
In the heart of Boston, calls for both peace and the release of hostages rang out as families, faith leaders and community advocates gathered for a memorial service organized by the organization If Not Now.
A year later, the collective grief, heard in a solemn song, was deep. A year later, the violence, fueled by horrific evil, continues.
“I harbor great sadness and also anger over the horror and violence of the past year,” said Isaiah Newman of If Not Now. “Every life in the Jewish tradition is a universe, every life carries weight, carries value, carries inherent meaning and every life is worthy of dignity, every life is worthy of respect.”
Community mourns lives lost since October 7 attacks
In the middle of the Boston Public Garden, a community stood united one year after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, mourning all the lives lost since that day. 1,200 Israelis were killed. Some hostages did not make it out alive and some are still in captivity. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have died in Israel as a result of the war in Gaza.
Now the latest middle conflict is escalating in Lebanon, where Reem’s family lives in terror. “Most of my family lives in Lebanon. I worry about their safety every day, they are five minutes away from total chaos every day,” Reem said. “I don’t sleep well.”
What they can do now is call together for an end to death and destruction.
In solidarity, Representative Ayana Pressley joins that continued mission. “We can’t just pray for peace, we can’t just hope, and that’s why we must use every diplomatic tool at our disposal for a ceasefire and stop sending bombs,” said Rep. Pressley . “Right now I sit with the thousands of lives that we have been robbed of, who are Israeli, who are Palestinian, who are Jewish, who are Muslim, who are Arab, who are American.”
Tammy Mutasa
