Around 200 people have gathered in Dublin to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks in Israel.
It is one year tomorrow since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to more than 250 people being taken hostage.
Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder led a minute silence for the victims outside the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge.
Nearly one year on, some of the hostages have been killed, rescued, or returned in an exchange.
Speakers read out the names of the 97 which remain unaccounted for.
The vigil was organised by the Ireland-Israel Alliance.
The vigil’s organiser Jackie Goodall was in Israel on 7 October, 2023.
“I woke up to the sounds of the sirens and the rockets coming in. I was absolutely disgusted that Hamas chose one of the happiest days on the Jewish calendar to carry out these atrocities,” she said.
“So we thought it was important to come out and have this show of solidarity,” said the founder of the Ireland-Israel Alliance.
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One member of the Jewish community living in Ireland, Agne Kniuraite, said believes there has been a rise in hostility towards her and her faith since 7 October.
“Even without saying what my position on Israel is, what my position on what’s happening in the Middle East is, I get assigned a sort of persona and people just go with it and they use it to bully me.” she said.
“It’s been really hard making friendships here in Ireland when there’s this added kind of factor of ‘oh if they find out that I’m Jewish, if they find out that I have these connections and links to the Jewish and Israel community. what will they think of me?'” she added.
Ohad Levy, an Israeli living in Ireland, said today’s vigil should be about different communities coming together.
“I came here to Ireland to live my life and not to hate anyone and I want to be treated the same. We are not here to hate, we are here to love” he said.
“We don’t want any further casualties from Gaza or from Lebanon or from Iran. We don’t want it. We just want our people to come home safely.”
