Rainbow flags, colourful floats and Bad Bunny on loudspeakers brought a festive mood to Tel Aviv for this year's Pride march, the first in full form since before the October 7 attack and the war in Gaza."I wanted to come last year, they cancelled it at the last minute, and the previous year too," Orion Tree, a nursery employee who joined the march, told AFP under the blazing sun of the coastal Israeli city."I'm 40 years old, and I've been waiting to go to Pride since I was a child. So I'm really happy to be here," he said.The 28th edition of the event is the first to be held in its usual format since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the wars that followed, some of which are ongoing.Long presented as one of the largest LGBTQ events in the Middle East, this year's march once again featured brightly coloured floats, dancers and drums, albeit with a more subdued atmosphere than in years past."We're trying to celebrate, but there are far fewer people than in previous years," said one participant, who declined to give her name. "People in the north (of Israel) are still under bombardments (from Lebanese group Hezbollah), some people still can't return to their homes in the south, we hate our government, we hate what they're doing and the direction they're taking us in."