Israelis gathered Wednesday to commemorate the October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage, and sparked a war in Gaza that has devastated the territory and left its 2 million people living in dire conditions.
In southern Israel, families mourned at intersections, bomb shelters, and the site of a music festival that Hamas-led militants overran three years ago in the deadliest attack against Israel.
It is the first anniversary that all the hostages are home, marking a new stage of grief.
At a portrait of Yevgeni Postel, a 25-year-old student, his mother laid a bouquet of flowers and broke down sobbing.
‘These are our heroes; the greatest children of Israel,’ said one police officer as he looked at portraits of his fallen colleagues.
At the Kfar Aza kibbutz, which was also devastated by the attack, mourners sat in silence in assembled chairs as they watched the raising of an Israeli flag.
For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of life of misery and difficulties after an Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Most of the population of about 2 million people live in vast, squalid tent camps, with large parts of the strip’s cities reduced to rubble.
People mark the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel at the site of the Nova music festival
Israeli soldiers and civilians mark the third anniversary of October 7, 2023
Family members mourn and pay their respects while visiting the Nova festival memorial site
More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military, and despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.
For the region, the day highlights a startling transformation over the past three years.
Israeli troops occupy a large chunk of southern Lebanon in their conflict with Hezbollah, which began firing on Israel in 2023 in support of Hamas.
Iran and the United States are locked in a confrontation that has seen attacks across Arab Gulf countries and has shaken the global economy – a conflict that Israel helped launch and that the Gaza war paved the way for even if they weren’t directly connected.
Elkana Bohbot, 37, is marking the anniversary in Israel for the first time, after being released from 738 days of captivity last year.
For most of that time, he said, he was held 50 meters (165 feet) underground in a dark, damp tunnel.
Bohbot, who was abducted from the Nova music festival, was kept in a small cell with other hostages, given very little food, and allowed to bathe only every few weeks, he said.
His captors forced him to take part in several propaganda videos, including one where he acts out a fake call to his family.
In the 11 months since his release, Bohbot has undergone physical and emotional rehabilitation, written a book, begun a speaking career, traveled with his family, and celebrated all the holidays and birthdays he missed.
In August, his wife, Rivka, gave birth to a daughter, fulfilling a fierce promise that Bohbot made to himself in the tunnels to give his 5-year-old son, Reem, a sibling.
The newborn Michele is ‘not a symbol for my people, she is more of a symbol for the enemy,’ Bohbot said. ‘So this child is the message for you that we were here, and we will always be here forever.’
An Israeli soldier crouches to light a candle at the memorial to the victims of the 2023 Hamas attacks
Relatives attend a memorial service marking the third anniversary of October 7, 2023
The family of Lior Tkach cries while visiting his memorial plaque and photo at the Nova festival memorial
An Israeli soldier attends a memorial service marking the third anniversary of October 7, 2023
A man prays by a roadside bomb shelter on the third anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led October 7 2023 attack
Israeli soldiers light a memorial candle beside a commemorative marker at the Nova music festival site
No events are expected on Wednesday in Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has devastated the narrow strip and displaced around 90 per cent of its population, often multiple times.
Restrictions on the entry of goods and aid have contributed to a severe hunger crisis.
More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children.
The numbers from the ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
While a ceasefire that took effect on October 10 has halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued, targeting what Israel says are Hamas militants.
Since the ceasefire, 1,145 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the ministry. Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in that period.
The separate commemorations are indicative of the deep divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war and his reluctance to launch an official inquiry into failings of the day.
Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister who has denounced Netanyahu for not preventing the attack, joined mourners at Nova to remember the attack by the ‘monsters’ three years ago.
‘This was a colossal failure of the state of Israel, which was established to defend Jews in our land,’ Bennett told reporters.
‘But during those minutes, young men and women from all across Israel came over to fight and protect and save lives of their brothers and sisters and a generation of heroes emerged. And we owe it to this amazing generation to rebuild our country – to be stronger, better,’ he said.
Netanyahu marked October 7 with official ceremonies in Jerusalem on Monday, which was closer to the anniversary on the Jewish calendar.
He vowed there would be ‘no forgiveness for the murderers’ and vowed never to allow rule in Gaza by Hamas, which has faced major losses but remains in control of part of the territory.
Family members visit the Nova festival memorial site in the early morning
Family members of the soldiers from the observatory unit of the IDF mourn
A woman rests against outdoor bomb shelter walls near ‘Am Israel Chai’ graffiti at the Nova festival memorial site
The sun rises over the Nova festival memorial site as people come to pay their respects
Today’s events will be held under heightened security measures, three weeks from Israel’s general elections and one week after a foiled attack on a Tel Aviv-bound passenger plane.
Israel’s defence minister said Tuesday he had put the military on high alert ‘in light of intelligence regarding Hamas’s intentions to attempt to carry out attacks’ against troops in Gaza on the anniversary.
The October 7 attack set in motion a cascade of events that led to wars across the Middle East as Israel confronted Hamas, Hezbollah and their backer Iran.
Israel has seized swaths of territory in Syria and Lebanon, where more than 300,000 Lebanese remain displaced.
The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran’s military and nuclear program in two rounds, battering Iran and upending global markets far from the battlefield.
Violence has also risen across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel’s far-right government has emboldened extremist settlers who have attacked Palestinians and destroyed their property.
Both at Nova and the Kfar Aza kibbutz, another site of mass killings three years earlier, loud bangs were heard from across the border in Gaza during the commemorations as Israel carried out new strikes, despite a ceasefire officially in place for the past year.
Gaza officials said at least two people were killed in overnight strikes in the territory.
On October 27, Israel will hold elections for the first time since the attack with polls showing a tight race for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who in three years has ordered the massive offensive in Gaza as well as in Lebanon and Iran, whose cleric-run government backs Hamas.
Netanyahu’s opponents want him to pay for the failures that led to the deadliest day in Israel’s 78-year history and plunged the country into a series of inconclusive wars.
They call his outgoing coalition ‘the massacre government.’ Netanyahu says he has led a ‘war of redemption.’
Members of the October Council, a group of former hostages and victims’ families, gather for a memorial service
A soldier from the observatory unit of the IDF, pays tribute at the memorial site on a hill by Nahal Oz
Young women hug at the memorial to the victims of the 2023 Hamas attacks at the Nova festival site in Reim
Netanyahu lays a wreath during a state memorial ceremony in memory of those killed in the October 7, 2023
His defenders say Netanyahu was betrayed by the military establishment and that he has led Israel through a dramatic rebound from its darkest hour.
A loss in the election would likely end the career of the soon-to-be 77-year-old Netanyahu.
A victory would mark the greatest turnaround yet for a man who has defied naysayers for three decades.
After a string of resignations by top security officials, Netanyahu is the only senior figure from October 7 still in office, making this month’s election in many ways a referendum on his leadership.
His chief rival is Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief whose son and nephew were killed in battle in Gaza.
The opponents have pledged to form a government of ‘repair and reconstruction’ – beginning with the formation of an official commission of inquiry into October 7.
They also have vowed to end draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox religious men, a long-standing policy that has outraged the secular majority at a time of war, and accuse Netanyahu of threatening Israel’s democratic institutions.
‘The most fateful elections in the history of the State of Israel are between evasion and enlistment,’ Eisenkot wrote on X. ‘Between taking responsibility and fleeing from responsibility.’
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls for a commission of inquiry while trying to shift the blame to security officials.
He recently accused the then-head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, of withholding information ahead of the attack. Bar has vowed to file a defamation lawsuit.
Netanyahu has meanwhile denied reports in American media outlets that the United Arab Emirates and Egypt warned him ahead of October 7.
A view of damaged buildings in Gaza City, Gaza
Palestinians salvage belongings from the destroyed Al-Gatshan family building after an Israeli strike in Nusseirat refugee camp
Most of the population of about 2 million people live in vast, squalid tent camps, with large parts of the strip’s cities reduced to rubble
A displaced Palestinian girl stands next to hanging clothes inside a damaged building
‘Our enemies expected us to collapse,’ Netanyahu said in a recent address to the United Nations. ‘Well, we didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions.’
Netanyahu’s Likud party also includes two grieving parents, among them the mother of a policeman killed in battle on October 7 whose remains were the last to be returned to Israel as part of a ceasefire. Another Likud candidate lost both legs while serving in Gaza.
The leader of the dovish Democrats party, Yair Golan, is a retired general who put on his uniform and rushed to the southern border to fight on October 7.
The centrist Together party’s list has another former general, Noam Tibon, who also battled militants as he rescued his son’s family, and the mother of a soldier killed that day.
Other parties have also added people directly impacted by the attack.
Organizers, including victims’ relatives, say they are keeping politics out of a mass memorial service in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. But they have hardly concealed their anger at the country’s leadership.
‘We will not let anyone evade responsibility,’ Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother was taken hostage and mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers after escaping captivity, said in a radio interview.
