Vivian Bercovici: Today we mourn. And hope for the future

Even victory will not be sweet. There has been so much civilian suffering — among Israelis, Palestinians and now the Lebanese

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Throughout Israel, October 7 is a day we will forever dread.

Today, we will grieve. We will manage our shock, one year on, at the massacre that was and the horrific year that ensued.

We will commemorate the fallen, the murdered, and desperately hope for a miracle to return the hostages remaining in Hamas hell, alive and dead.

There have been uplifting moments that a friend of mine who is a military expert refers to as “imagination-bending achievements.”

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Like the impossibly daring hostage rescue operations.

And then, on Sept. 17, thousands of pagers, often clipped to a belt or tucked in a pant pocket, simultaneously beeped. The Hezbollah operatives carrying the devices pressed a button to read a message. And the pagers exploded. Eyes, hands, fingers, chunks of torsos and other body parts were destroyed.

The following day, walkie-talkies replaced pagers. They, too, exploded. Virtually every day since, top Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders have been assassinated in targeted attacks, culminating with the pinpoint strike on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.

Nasrallah was surrounded by top aides in an underground bunker. The hideout was in a civilian apartment building in the Hezbollah-controlled Dahieh area of south Beirut. These senior Hezbollah officials had gathered to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address the United Nations General Assembly, an opportunity that was seized by the Israeli air........

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