Palestinians and Israelis reflect on a tragic year

Good morning. Here’s what we’re covering today:
To mark one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza, a Times reporter and special correspondent talked to Israelis and Palestinians on the ground who reflected on the state of their lives and that of their respective societies.
In their own words, they chronicled a tragic day and devastating year. Here are a few examples of what they said:
The anniversary will be marked in Los Angeles. College campuses are bracing for possible protests. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other top leaders are scheduled to attend a memorial event for Oct. 7 victims, one of several events planned by leading Jewish groups.
The Times will have reporters around the region capturing the day.
Meanwhile, here are stories — some wrenching, some eye-opening — from our foreign/national desk that offer a view of the last year and the lives that continue to be destroyed.
Israelis and Palestinians chronicle a devastating day and tragic year: A year after the Oct. 7 attack that spurred the Gaza war, Israelis and Palestinians reflect, in their own words.
Inside an Israeli lab, workers pore over the mangled bodies of the dead: A forensic investigator in Tel Aviv works on “reassembling and reconnecting” the remains of victims of Hamas militants, trying to understand the causes of death and the underlying cruelty.
The scale of death overwhelms the living: In Israel, a quest to identify unrecognizable bodies. In Gaza, bodies are piled and some stored in ice cream trucks as power fails.
Two strangers — a Palestinian and an Israeli — tell the story of a region’s pain: This moment in the Israel-Hamas war can be glimpsed in the fate of two fathers, strangers who share misfortunes brought on by larger powers and are now left to find their way.
A Palestinian boy’s death in the West Bank signals wider unrest: Violence surges in the West Bank as Israel increases raids to root out militants. Palestinians say the military is using the war as an excuse to crack down.
“I was crying, screaming, praying, terrified.” A Gaza resident reports on life under siege: Since Israel’s siege and bombing campaign on Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the humanitarian situation on the ground has become disastrous.
In Gaza, she sits by her belongings, waiting for her home to be bombed: Where to go? It’s a question Palestinians ask over and over in Gaza as Israel ramps up bombardment after the Hamas truce collapsed.
Israel’s religious right has a clear plan for Gaza. “We are occupying, deporting and settling”: Religious Zionists, most believing in a divine right to govern, now have outsize influence in Israel. The war in the Gaza Strip is energizing their settlement push.
This 5-year-old from Gaza is learning to live with one leg and untold loss: In Qatar’s capital, a compound housing Palestinian medical evacuees from Gaza is a living catalog of what war does to the human body.
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