October 7: No light at the end of the tunnel after 'year that’s gone on forever'

On October 7, Israelis will honour the fallen, pay homage to fellow citizens fighting on the frontlines, and reflect on the plight of the remaining hostages - but they have no need to cast their minds back to remember one year ago, because they haven’t yet had a chance to forget it.

The monstrous attack carried out by Hamas has spawned a hydra, a multi-front war during which this country has come under attack from the north, south, east and west.

Israel was established as a Jewish safe haven in the wake of the Holocaust, but any sense of security was washed away by the torrent of blood spilled on October 7, 2023.

Our nightmares may be private, but the nightmare inflicted by Hamas that day was a very public one.

Many of the monstrous sadists wore body cams to record their giddy, ghastly rampage, which saw around 1,200 people killed, nearly 800 of them civilians.

The most horrific toll was among the ranks of young people partying at a music festival. In a matter of seconds joy pivoted quickly past confusion, to absolute horror.

This wasn’t just the worst day for Jewish people since the Holocaust, it was reminiscent of it.

Being hunted down by merciless killers who, where possible, opened fire at point blank range; the burnings; the rapes; the mutilations; the terrifying last minute dash by the pursued trying and failing to find refuge.

The passage of 365 days has done nothing to dull the pain, not least because of the ongoing hostage torment.

The final chilling scene of that Hamas assault a year go featured the banshee wails of kidnappers as they wrestled their 250 prisoners across the border and into the hell of Gazan captivity.

Any celebrations would be short-lived, however. Israeli retribution would be swift and devastating.

We saw the flashes of the explosions about four seconds before hearing them. And the noise, even across 20 miles, was simply colossal. The Israeli Air Force was dropping bombs big enough to level entire neighbourhoods in northern Gaza.

The IDF was out to teach the strip a lesson that the rest of the Middle East would never forget.

Today, Gaza has been laid waste to such an extent it has automatic and singular recognition. It’s a four-letter cataclysm we instantly associate with the likes of Dresden, Mosul and Raqqa.

While Hamas members can hide in the relative safety of "the Metro", the maze of underground tunnels and bunkers that stretches for hundreds of miles, ordinary Gazans have nowhere to run.

Israel claims it does all it can to limit civilian casualties, nonetheless reports suggest around two thirds of the dead are not Hamas members.

Over the course of the year around two million Palestinians in Gaza have been nomadic. Bombed out of home they’ve had to repeatedly up sticks to go in search of the peace and quiet that just can’t be found there.

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The Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll stands at more than 41,500, but how many more bodies lie in the mounds of rubble that now characterise the population centres?

The obliteration started in Gaza City, and then surged southwards taking in Khan Younis and eventually Rafah, on the Egyptian border.

The world has looked on aghast at the new orphans, at the loss of limbs, and at the spreading graveyards.

But the world has been unable to stop it. With the exception of one week in late November, the suffering and the killing has been unremitting.

Early on, US President Joe Biden said that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is "ironclad".

To know that the world’s biggest military will be on your side if the chips are down is a safety net that has allowed the Israeli Prime Minister to disregard much of what else has come out of the White House.

When October 7 happened, much of the rest of the world thought it exemplified the need to resolve the conflict.

However, most Israelis thought it proved that conflict resolution is impossible.

Biden has been touting a grand plan whereby Israel becomes part of a regional anti-Iranian alliance - making friends with all the Sunni Arab countries - in return for a commitment to pursue the two-state solution.

But the Netanyahu government isn’t interested, not least because it is as opposed to Palestinian statehood as you can get.

Some settlers in the cabinet want to re-settle Gaza and annex all of the West Bank. These are the ministers who have threatened to topple the government if Benjamin Netanyahu agrees a ceasefire with Hamas.

Repeatedly Biden has cautioned against moves that the Israelis have made anyway. Those include the assault on Rafah and the incursion into South Lebanon.

Top level assassinations have elicited two big Iranian responses in the form of missile attacks on Israel both last week and in April. On each occasion the Americans were there to help defend Israel.

Despite frequent visits over the course of the year, I can’t think of a senior US diplomat who is currently in the region trying to halt the escalation.

No-one seems to have a plan or any idea how this ends. Israel is battling on several fronts, but the battle the region is crying out for just isn’t taking place - the battle of ideas.

The Palestinian Authority has delivered little to nothing on that front either. The acceptable face of Palestinian aspirations, it’s yet to condemn Hamas’ cruel assault on southern Israel.

Now, nearly two million Gazans face the prospect of their second winter in tents, while a million Lebanese face the prospect of their first.

Over the course of the year the conflict has expanded, making sure that any healing is yet to begin. And what really has changed, beyond the body count and the number of homeless?

For Israelis October 7 is the day that’s never ended. For Palestinians, it’s the day that ushered in the year that’s gone on forever.

Twelve months on, the passage of time feels meaningless because the Middle East is stuck, its future opaque in a dark and gloomy way.

All those tunnels, and no light at the end of any of them.

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