Hamas’s Terror Attack on Israel: One Year Later

One year ago on October 7, 2023, Hamas militants initiated a deadly surprise assault on Israel, slaughtering entire families in their homes and taking more than 250 people hostage. It was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Israel’s history.

In response to eyewitness accounts and video evidence of the atrocities, Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie voiced her support for Israel and issued the following statement:

“The Israeli people and Jewish Americans deserve our unequivocal support against threats to their very existence and the grotesque antisemitism displayed by groups here at home and in the Middle East.”

Hamas terrorists staged a mass slaughter of soldiers and civilians in at least 22 Israeli villages, towns and military outposts. Nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians were killed in the October attack. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Hamas brutally murdered more than 40 Americans on October 7.

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 10 were American. This is what we know to-date about the hostages:
  • In exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, 105 hostages were freed during a brief temporary cease-fire in November of 2023, including Americans Judith and Natalie Raanan from Illinois.
  • At least eight hostages are known to have been rescued alive.
  • 12 hostages have died in Gaza, either at the hands of their captors or in Israeli strikes. American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among six hostages who were executed by Hamas terrorists in late August.
  • The bodies of three Americans killed on October 7 remain in the hands of Hamas: Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judith Weinstein Haggai
  • 97 hostages still are captive in Gaza among them four Americans: Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Omer Neutra and Keith Siegel. It is feared that at least 30 of these hostages are dead.
According to the Washington Post, “The evidence, described by more than a dozen current and former intelligence and security officials from four Western and Middle Eastern countries, reveals an intention by Hamas planners to strike a blow of historic proportions, in the expectation that the group’s actions would compel an overwhelming Israeli response.”

Israel wasted no time in launching its offensive and declared war on the terrorist organization, vowing to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed.

More than 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas set the conflict in motion to provoke Israel into an overwhelming response. In that, they were successful. The latest escalation in the Israel-Hamas war lays bare the reality that the area has grown profoundly more perilous since Hamas’s October 7 terror attack.
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