Israelis Commemorate 'October 7' While Palestinians Suffer from the Destruction of Gaza

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Israeli citizens held a silent memorial vigil today, Wednesday, at a kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip, where militants launched an attack led by Hamas on October 7 three years ago, mourning the victims of the attack that was followed by the Israeli campaign on the strip and plunged the Middle East into war.

In the strip, devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment, Palestinians taking shelter among the ruins of destroyed cities recalled memories of life before the war that displaced nearly the entire population and separated families.

October 7, 2023, became the deadliest day in Israel's history. Militants led by Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages into the Gaza Strip in a cross-border incursion that shocked Israelis and led them to demand accountability from the government.

Meanwhile, the bombardment and ground operations launched by Israel following the attack resulted in the deaths of more than 74,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including 1,400 killed over the past year since the implementation of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which helped halt major combat operations but did not put an end to Israeli attacks in the strip or lead to the disarmament of Hamas.

In Kfar Azza, where Hamas gunmen killed dozens of Israelis before taking 19 hostages to the Gaza Strip, residents held memorial services for the dead, standing in silence as a horn played a funeral tune. One resident recited a list of the names of the deceased.

Zion Regev, one of the local community leaders in the kibbutz, said that most residents are still displaced and have not yet returned, while the shock of October 7 continues to shape their lives.

In other parts of Israel, protesters gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem in protest of the lack of accountability for the security failure, holding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for refusing to conduct an independent investigation into the attack.

Some protesters carried signs that read, "The people will remember October 7 on October 27," referring to the Israeli general elections scheduled in 20 days, which are seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's long tenure in power.

Protester Shaked Arad said, "We need change, and hope, and we need to know that we have a government that cares about the public and is not just working for itself."

Netanyahu refused to take responsibility for the security failure and resisted calls for an independent investigation. This has caused discontent among many in Israel, including families of those killed in the attacks, some of whom have joined the electoral race.

Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office, "The nation unites on this day in mourning for our loved ones."

He added, "We will complete the mission, we have settled the accounts, and we will continue to settle accounts with all the killers," referring to ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Polls show that Netanyahu and his main rivals will not be able to secure enough seats in parliament to form a coalition if elections were held today.

This anniversary is the first since the ceasefire was reached on October 10, 2025, but Israel has remained in control of about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, where it has demolished remaining buildings and ordered residents to leave.

Hamas controls the remaining third, where most of the population of two million lives in temporary tents and buildings destroyed by shelling.

In the latest acts of violence, paramedics in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that the Israeli army carried out airstrikes in Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip and in Khan Younis in the south, resulting in the deaths of at least two Palestinians and injuries to others.

The Israeli army stated that it targeted and killed two individuals it described as Hamas militants. The movement has not yet commented on this. The Israeli army has also not commented on the strike in Khan Younis.

Um Mohammed, a mother of five who was displaced from Gaza City and now lives with her husband and children in a displacement camp in Deir al-Balah, said that the war has torn her family apart.

She said, "We were one happy family. The war displaced us. One of my sons left Gaza, another moved to a separate tent, and my daughters left with their husbands to other areas of the strip, and we rarely meet."

She added, "We remember how happy we were, despite all the problems, before the outbreak of the war that destroyed everything we loved."