Israelis gathered across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during an assault on southern Israel.
Unofficial commemorations were held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped, and a large rally was due to be held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
At the site of the Nova music festival, where more than 370 people were killed and dozens taken hostage, relatives returned at dawn to mourn the dead. At 6.29am – the precise time when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack – there was a minute’s silence.
Tuesday will also mark the second anniversary of the start of Israel’s military campaign on the Gaza Strip, which has brought material and human destruction to the people living there.
The official Israeli ceremony of remembrance will be held on 16 October in the national cemetery on Mount Herzl after the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
The memory of the collective trauma of the attack two years ago – the deadliest single attack in Israel’s history – still looms large across the country. The faces of hostages still held in Gaza are plastered on bus stops around the country, and homes that were lit on fire by militants as they marauded through kibbutzim stand charred and abandoned.
The anniversary has been overshadowed by hopes that the war in Gaza may finally be coming to a close. Negotiators from Hamas and Israel gathered on Monday in Egypt, where they began indirect talks to iron out the details of the release of all hostages held in Gaza and the return of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, as well as the initial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
This round of negotiations, while still far from a deal, has generated more enthusiasm than any peace efforts since the last ceasefire broke down in mid-March.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he hopes to announce the release of hostages “in the coming days”, while Donald Trump has threatened Hamas with “total obliteration” if the deal does not happen.
Some commemoration events have been repurposed as rallies to call on the government to reach a deal to bring home the hostages and end the war. At a rally in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, families demanded Netanyahu agree to Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.
In Gaza, Palestinians are waiting with bated breath to see if a ceasefire materialises. Despite Trump’s demands that Israel stop bombing Gaza in anticipation of a hostage release, strikes on the strip have continued. Gaza’s ministry of health said at least 19 people were killed by Israel over the past 24 hours, including two people seeking aid.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 170,000 have been wounded by Israel in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry. At least 460 people have died from starvation in Gaza, and the world’s leading authority on food crises has said a famine is unfolding in parts of the strip – a product of what most aid agencies say is an Israeli blockade on Gaza. Israel has denied the claim.
A UN commission of inquiry, several human rights groups and the world’s premier association of genocide scholars have said Israel has committed genocide in Gaza over the past two years. Israel has denied the accusation and said its actions constituted self-defence.
