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One year after Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 in attacks across Israel and took roughly 250 people hostage, North Carolina leaders mourned their loss and called for an immediate return of those still held captive.
Governor Roy Cooper wrote in a post on X that “our hearts remain heavy” on the anniversary of the attacks, noting that roughly 100 people remain prisoners of Hamas, including American-Israeli Chapel Hill native Keith Siegel.
“We pray for them to be brought home, for an end to this war causing so much death and destruction, and for a lasting peace,” Cooper wrote.
Siegel, 65, was last seen in a video released by Hamas in April, appearing to speak under duress as he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire with Hamas. His wife, Aviva Siegel, was released by Hamas on Nov. 26.
Since it began one year ago, the war in Gaza has claimed more than 40,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel’s invasion has displaced 1.9 million Gazans and has created conditions that some United Nations experts have labeled a famine, potentially leading to thousands more deaths from starvation.
Despite a brief ceasefire accompanied by a series of hostage releases in November, the conflict has only widened since, with skirmishes erupting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Last Tuesday, Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah, fired 200 ballistic missiles against Israel in reprisal for an Israeli strike that killed the leader of Hezbollah.
While North Carolina Republicans and Democrats alike called for all remaining hostages to be released, they differed in whether they called for unconditional support for the Israeli war effort or a ceasefire in the conflict, respectively. Earlier this year, a group of nearly 50 local and state elected officials signed a letter calling for a permanent end to the fighting.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson condemned the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and called for continued support for Israel. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, called the Hamas invasion “the worst attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
“It is more important than ever that we stand firm with Israel and allow them to be victorious over those who seek its demise,” he wrote in a post on X. “We must also call out antisemitism here at home, and let it be known that we will always stand with Israel and the Jewish people.”
Robinson, whose inflammatory statements have mired his campaign in controversy, has faced widespread condemnation for antisemitic comments, including a 2018 Facebook post in which he called the Holocaust “a bunch of hogwash” and denied that six million Jewish people were killed in concentration camps. Robinson later recanted the claims.
Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson’s opponent, called Oct. 7 a “somber anniversary” and urged the release of the hostages and an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
“The attacks by Hamas on Israel left awful scars on families, communities, and nations,” Stein wrote on X. “We pray for the release of the hostages and a lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. May the memories of those lost be a blessing.”
The state’s senior U.S. Senator, Republican Thom Tillis called for the U.S. to continue to support the Israeli war effort against Hamas as well as other Iranian proxies.
“We will never forget the innocent lives lost, and the United States must continue to support our ally Israel and its right to defend itself against Hamas and Iran’s terrorist network,” Tillis wrote in a statement on X.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Ted Budd released a video recounting efforts to bring the Siegels home, insisting that the onus is on Hamas, not Israel, to bring an end to the hostilities.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said only continued support for the Israeli war effort would lead to the hostages’ release in a video published on X. (Photo: Screenshot from video posted by Ted Budd on X.)
“If Israel laid down her arms today, she would be destroyed by Hamas and her neighbor to the north in Hezbollah,” he said. “To those in Gaza, my message is really clear: Release the hostages now, renounce terrorism, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
Democratic Fourth District Congresswoman Valerie Foushee who represents Chapel Hill, mourned the Oct. 7 victims in a post on X and called to “resume negotiations and de-escalation efforts to ensure the release of all remaining hostages, protect innocent lives, and build durable peace in the Middle East.”
Republican Fifth District Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, condemned college professors and students who have protested the war in Gaza in the year following the attacks on Israel.
“No one will forget the harassment and suffering Jewish students have faced this past year,” she wrote. “The so-called leadership at schools bears ultimate responsibility for allowing and enabling the cancer of antisemitism to spread unchecked.”
Under Foxx’s leadership, the education committee has railed against higher education institutions around the country where students have held pro-Palestine protests. Testimony before the committee in November led to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.
In North Carolina colleges, more protests are on the horizon. The University of North Carolina chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine will hold a week of resistance protesting the war in Gaza beginning with a “a candlelit vigil honoring the hundreds of thousands of martyrs killed by the Israeli occupation over the past year” Monday evening, according to a post on the group’s Instagram page.