On Tuesday, Israel quietly observed the second anniversary of the Hamas attack that ignited its longest ongoing conflict. Despite emerging hopes for peace, the nation remains deeply affected by the continued captivity of 48 Israeli hostages, the immense loss of over 67,000 Palestinian lives, and the widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip wrought by its weary military.
The timing of this somber milestone coincided with Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival and a significant national and religious holiday, which brought most Israeli businesses to a halt. Consequently, official commemorations of the war’s traumatic inaugural day have been postponed by the government until October 16th, following the conclusion of the High Holiday season.
Nevertheless, the gravity of Tuesday’s anniversary was deeply felt. Across the country, particularly in the Israeli kibbutzim near Gaza that bore the brunt of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacres, quiet gatherings and informal events were held to honor the victims and reflect on the tragedy.
Early Tuesday morning in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, approximately 20 runners donned T-shirts bearing messages calling for the hostages’ return. They traversed a familiar route through the town, home to captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, as passing cars offered honks of solidarity.
At Kfar Azza, a small kibbutz located less than two miles from Gaza, where a horrific 62 residents were killed and 19 taken hostage, dozens gathered for a memorial. The ceremony began with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. – the exact time, on a Saturday morning, when Hamas launched thousands of rockets, overwhelming Israel’s air-defense systems.
This intense aerial bombardment provided cover for Hamas’s primary offensive: an invasion involving thousands of militants. They breached the fence separating Gaza from border towns, overwhelming dozens of small agricultural communities, brutally killing residents in their homes, gunning down young people at a music festival, and overrunning Israeli military bases.
In total, Hamas claimed the lives of approximately 1,200 individuals, predominantly civilians, and took around 250 captive. This tragic event marked the single bloodiest day in Israel’s history and the deadliest for Jewish people globally since the Holocaust.
In a swift and horrified response, Israel initiated a devastating military campaign. According to the Gaza health ministry, this operation has resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian deaths, encompassing both civilians and combatants, and left tens of thousands wounded. The conflict has razed countless buildings, transforming much of the territory’s infrastructure and landscape into a wasteland of rubble, shrapnel, and sand.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the war has meant a relentless cycle of displacement. They have been forced to flee Israeli attacks, seeking refuge in areas that often prove to be temporary havens, only to face further displacement. Compounding this tragedy, critical food shortages and significant hurdles in delivering humanitarian aid led an international panel of hunger experts to declare in August that parts of the enclave were experiencing famine.
Within Israel, the ongoing conflict and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to secure the release of remaining hostages—despite widespread public support for such a move—have profoundly fractured society, deepening pre-existing divisions. Many Israelis believe he has deliberately prolonged the war, even passing up opportunities for a ceasefire after Hamas’s leadership was dismantled, all in an effort to maintain his right-wing coalition and cling to power.
This protracted conflict has imposed significant burdens on reservists, who have been compelled to undertake multiple extended tours of duty, straining the national economy and putting their personal lives on indefinite hold. It has also intensified deep-seated resentment towards ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are typically exempted from military service.
Israel’s wartime actions, marked by a devastating casualty toll and harrowing images of children and other civilians killed and injured in Gaza, along with inflammatory statements from some of Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right allies advocating for the depopulation and annexation of the territory, have triggered widespread accusations of genocide from entities such as a United Nations commission and Amnesty International.
Israel vehemently denies these allegations, asserting that its military takes measures to protect Palestinian civilians, including issuing warnings before attacks. Furthermore, it attributes civilian casualties to Hamas fighters, accusing them of deliberately endangering non-combatants by operating from within civilian structures like hospitals and schools.
In Rome, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, offered a sharp rebuke on Monday, describing the situation in Gaza as an “ongoing massacre” in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano newspaper. He criticized the Israeli army for allegedly ignoring the reality that its actions impact a predominantly defenseless population.
The international outrage ignited by the Gaza war has sadly contributed to a global surge in antisemitism and violence targeting Jewish communities. Tragic incidents include the killing of an elderly man at a pro-hostage march in Boulder, Colorado; two Israeli Embassy workers fatally attacked outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.; and two worshipers killed at a Manchester, England, synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The relentless continuation of the war has further intensified Israel’s isolation on the global stage. This became starkly evident in late September when ten nations, including longstanding allies such as Britain, Canada, France, and Australia, for the first time officially recognized Palestinian statehood.
Conversely, Palestinian political aspirations, by some accounts, seem more distant than ever before. The October 7th attacks catalyzed a rightward shift in Israeli public sentiment, leading many liberals who once championed peace to feel a sense of betrayal and to now oppose the creation of a Palestinian state on Israel’s border.
As Tuesday concluded, the conflict along the Israel-Gaza border showed no signs of abating.
In Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes were audible overhead at 1 a.m., then again after 5:30 a.m. With the sunrise, gunfire echoed from the town’s eastern sector, punctuated by intermittent artillery blasts.
Post-7 a.m., rocket sirens blared in Netiv HaAsara, an Israeli community situated on Gaza’s northern border. The Israeli military subsequently confirmed that a projectile had landed in the vicinity.
Back in Kfar Azza, the designated moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. was anything but quiet. The air was filled with the persistent whine of drones, the roar of helicopters, and the frequent thunder of explosions.
“Some people claim these events are fading into the past, but for me, the impact feels stronger than ever,” shared Nitzan Kaner, 37, who endured being trapped for roughly 30 hours during the militant assault. On Tuesday morning, she recounted a restless night, stating, “I couldn’t stop reliving what we experienced.”
Reporting for this article was provided by Aaron Boxerman from Kfar Azza, Israel; Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot; Bilal Shbair from Deir al-Balah, Gaza; and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.