The Brighton & Hove Jewish community will commemorate a year since the October 7 massacre with a special ceremony on Monday, just days after a Palmeira Square memorial for the victims was violently vandalised.

As Jewish community members in Brighton & Hove prepared for the emotionally fraught anniversary of the October 7 atrocities, a video surfaced of a man destroying a park memorial to those murdered by Hamas in an incident that Sussex police are investigating as a hate crime.

“Last week on Jewish New Year someone completely destroyed the memorial,” said Adam Ma’anit, Brighton resident and Jewish organiser from the Palmeira Memorial Group. “It has been there for 11 months and attacked over 20 times, but we had never seen anything that ferocious. We will not be cowed and will not be driven from the public square.”

The video shows a man violently tossing aside the plaque commemorating the victims, upending flowerpots, tearing up a photo and throwing stuffed animals.

In a statement, Sussex Police said it was “aware of a video circulating online relating to a man damaging the Jewish memorial in Palmeira Square, Hove”, adding that it had received the report on Friday and had appealed for witnesses to come forward to help identify the person responsible.

Det Supt Ben Newman said: “We were saddened to learn of this act of vandalism against a memorial that holds great significance for many people."

He added: "We understand the distress this may cause and are treating this incident as a hate crime."

The incident has not deterred plans for a commemorative service to be held in Palmeira Square however, where Brighton-based hostage campaigner Heidi Bachram said members of the Jewish community had been coming to pray and to remember the victims of October 7 for the past year.

From 3 to 6pm, the names of those murdered will be read aloud and, at 6.30pm, there will be a special service that will include poems and words from hostage family members from the local area. A giant poster of all the names will be displayed and songs and prayers performed.

Ma’anit, whose cousin Tsachi Idan was one of the roughly 240 people taken hostage on October 7 said: “Every day is October 7 for us and Tsachi’s family. We need the world to demand their release unconditionally. This is a humanitarian issue, not a political one.”

Hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish people are expected to attend the event, which has been organised by the Palmeira Memorial Group, Sussex Jewish Representative Council and the BNJC (Jewish community centre).