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‘We will rise from the dust’: Ahead of Tu BiShvat, Israelis and Jews worldwide plant trees in memory of Oct. 7 victims
(JTA) — On Sunday, standing on the grounds of the music festival that became a killing field, Meirav and Doron Madar planted a seedling in memory of their son.
The fledgling eucalyptus was one of 200 planted at the site of the Nova festival, where Hamas terrorists gunned down some 360 people on Oct. 7, including their 26-year-old son, Shahak Yosef Madar. Held days ahead of Tu BiShvat, the Jewish new year for the trees, the planting ceremony was one of several worldwide to pay tribute to the victims of Oct. 7 by seeding new life.
“Today, we came to plant a tree in his memory, hoping to see the tree, strong and flourishing, take root in the ground,” the Madars said at the ceremony, according to a press release.
Planting trees is an annual tradition on Tu BiShvat, which falls this year on Wednesday night and Thursday. In Jewish texts, trees usually symbolize life and strength, and in recent decades Jews have sponsored the planting of trees in Israel via the Jewish National Fund, which sponsored Sunday’s ceremony. The eucalyptus in particular has become a symbol of Israeli persistence that was immortalized in a 1962 song by Naomi Shemer.
But, as in Sunday’s ceremony, trees have been planted to commemorate Jewish death as well as life. Gardens in a number of Jewish communities memorialize the Holocaust, and a garden at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, pays tribute to non-Jews who rescued Jews from the Nazis, commonly referred to as “righteous gentiles.”
Sunday’s ceremony, held at Kibbutz Reim, where the massacre occurred, included approximately 1,000 relatives of the Nova victims, including Ricarda Louk, the mother of German-Israeli tattoo artist and influencer Shani Louk.
“The pain of the grieving families is the pain of the entire Israeli people, and we stand with them throughout the way,” KKL-JNF Chairwoman Ifat Ovadia-Luski said in a statement. “The history of the people of Israel is not just a history of disturbances but a history of resilience. On Tu BiShvat, we convey a message of renewal and hope: we will rise from the dust and grow new lives in Reim and all-around Israel.”
Zo Artzeinu — an organization that began as a right-wing activist movement and has since shifted its focus to planting trees in Israel — created a campaign to plant 12,000 fruit trees in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a Gaza border community that was ravaged on Oct. 7. The figure amounts to roughly 10 trees for every victim of the Hamas attack.
“Thousands of New mitzvot will come from these Fruit Trees and their Fruits,” said a statement on the Zo Artzeinu website, which added that the planting of the trees would elevate the souls of the victims. “Together, we’ll create NEW Life!”
Some Jewish schools and synagogues in the United States have also taken Tu Bishvat as an opportunity to commemorate the Oct. 7 victims.
Congregation B’nai Harim, a Reform congregation near Sacramento, is also fundraising for JNF, with the goal of raising $500 to plant 100 trees in Israel in memory of those killed. And middle school students at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, New Jersey spent Jan. 16, the 101st day since Oct. 7, reciting psalms and the name of each hostage, then writing “wish letters” describing their hopes for the hostages and Israel’s soldiers.
The letters will be displayed in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, named in honor of the Israelis held captive by Hamas, as part of a government-sponsored “Tree of Wishes” sent in by children around the world.
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The post ‘We will rise from the dust’: Ahead of Tu BiShvat, Israelis and Jews worldwide plant trees in memory of Oct. 7 victims appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.