Israelis commemorated the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Wednesday, while Palestinians in Gaza marked the date amid ongoing war and continued strikes.
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People in southern Israel gathered Wednesday to mourn the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, which killed 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and sparked a war in Gaza. It was the first anniversary since all the hostages, living and dead, were returned.
Near the town of Reim, where the Nova music festival was underway when militants overran the site, families gathered around photos of those killed. Survivors’ relatives hugged at 6:29 a.m., the exact time the first rockets were launched three years earlier, as explosions boomed in nearby Gaza.
Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son Sean, said she visits the site every Saturday and feels closest to him there, describing a video of him “dancing here that ends at 6:29 in the morning.” She said, “Every morning, you wake up and there is just endless missing.”
Another former hostage, Elkana Bohbot, 37, marked the anniversary in Israel for the first time since his release after 738 days of captivity. Bohbot said he was held underground in a dark, damp tunnel and forced to take part in propaganda videos, and that his wife Rivka gave birth to a daughter after his release.
In Gaza, most residents remain displaced and many live amid rubble and tent camps. Hamas said in a statement that the Oct. 7 attack reflected “heroism, resilience and national solidarity” and that “the conflict with the enemy did not begin on that day.”
Palestinians described a deterioration of life in the territory over the past three years. Walid Akram, a displaced resident of Gaza City, said, “We witnessed death, destruction, and bombardment that we had never known before,” and that “nothing remains,” describing what he called a “war of extermination” and the “absence of schools and universities.”
The Gaza territory’s Health Ministry put the death toll at more than 74,000 Palestinians, and said around half of those killed were women and children. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures, and the numbers are reported as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
A ceasefire that took effect Oct. 10, 2025 halted the heaviest fighting, but Israeli strikes have continued. Since the ceasefire began, the ministry said 1,460 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in that period.
In the background to this year’s commemorations, separate official memorial services in Israel took place Oct. 5, and the anniversary comes amid political divisions in the country, including debate over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war and his reluctance to launch an official inquiry into failings of the day.
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