Biden marks 7 October anniversary with candle-lighting ceremony: ‘A dark day’

Joe Biden commemorated the anniversary of the 7 October attacks in Israel with a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House on Monday.

The US president was joined by Jill Biden and Rabbi Aaron Alexander, who said a short prayer. Biden did not speak at the ceremony, but he paid tribute earlier in a statement to “the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust” and condemned the “vicious surge in antisemitism in America” since the attacks.

“The October 7 attack brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of hatred and violence against the Jewish people,” he said, before also referencing the suffering of Palestinians.

“I believe that history will also remember October 7 as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day. Far too many civilians have suffered far too much during this year of conflict.”

Kamala Harris also paid tribute on Monday to the victims of the 7 October attacks and called, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all.”

“What Hamas did that day was pure evil – it was brutal and sickening,” the US vice-president said in a statement. “And it has rekindled a deep fear among the Jewish people not just in Israel, but in the United States and around the world.”

Harris also nodded to the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza.

Related: Marking a year since 7 October attacks – in pictures

“I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year – tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine,” she said. “It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people.”

Harris and Donald Trump are both set to speak on Monday at events commemorating the first anniversary of the attacks.

Harris planned to hold a ceremony and plant a pomegranate tree – a symbol associated with the Jewish new year, which began last week – at the Naval Observatory in Washington, the vice-president’s official residence.

Accompanied by her husband, Doug Emhoff, Harris is also expected to deliver remarks reaffirming her “unwavering commitment to the security of Israel and of the Jewish people”, according to a White House spokesperson.

Emhoff, who is Jewish, also attended a prayer ceremony at the American Jewish Committee’s 7 October memorial commemoration, where he led a prayer for peace.

Related: World leaders mark first anniversary of 7 October attack on Israel

“May we see the day when the war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the world,” he said, “when nation will not threaten nation, and the human family will not again know war.”

Vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, speaking at a pro-Israel rally in Washington DC organized by the Christian group Philos Project, called the attacks of 7 October “the worst terrorist attack since 9/11” and an attack not only on Israel and Jewish people but “on Americans”.

Vance used the event as an opportunity to attack Biden and Harris.

“It is disgraceful that we have an American president and vice-president who haven’t done a thing,” he said. “Vice-President Harris, our message is: ‘Bring them home.’ Use your authority to help bring them home.”

Vance then criticized what he described as the “pro-Hamas” protests happening across the country on Monday and the students that he said are “supporting Islamic radicals, destroying property, and threatening Jewish students and professors”.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is set to speak later on Monday at a remembrance event at his golf course in Doral, Florida.

“Jewish community leaders will gather to honor the 1,200 lives lost after being taken hostage and killed on that fateful morning one year ago,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.

He is widely expected to turn the event into an attack on his rival. In recent weeks, he has said that he has been “the best president by far” for Israel, and that Jewish voters supporting Harris “should have their head examined”.