Israel observed the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, which ignited its longest war, in a deeply subdued manner this Tuesday. While fragile hopes for an end to the conflict flicker, the grim reality persists: 48 Israeli hostages remain captive, and the relentless military campaign continues to claim Palestinian lives and devastate the Gaza Strip.
The solemn occasion was partly overshadowed by the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, a national and religious holiday that brought most businesses across Israel to a halt. Official commemorations for the war’s traumatic first day were postponed until October 16th, following the conclusion of the High Holiday season.
Nonetheless, the significance of Tuesday’s milestone was undeniable. Quiet gatherings were held in several Israeli kibbutzim near Gaza, communities that bore the brunt of the Hamas-led massacres on October 7, 2023. Informal events also took place throughout the country, drawing participants eager to remember and reflect.
In Rehovot, a town south of Tel Aviv, a group of approximately 20 runners, sporting T-shirts adorned with messages demanding the return of the hostages, embarked on a popular morning route. Their journey circled the hometown of Nimrod Cohen, a soldier still held in captivity, as passing cars honked in a show of solidarity.
Just two miles from Gaza, in the small kibbutz of Kfar Azza, where at least 62 residents were killed and 19 abducted, several dozen survivors gathered for a memorial. It commenced with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m., marking the exact time on that Saturday morning when Hamas unleashed thousands of rockets, overwhelming Israel’s formidable air-defense system.
Beneath the cover of this aerial barrage, the main Hamas offensive unfolded. Thousands of militants swarmed across the border fence, invading towns and dozens of small agricultural communities. They executed residents in their homes, gunned down young people at a music festival, and overran Israeli military bases.
In total, Hamas killed approximately 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and took around 250 more captive. It was the deadliest day in Israel’s history and the most devastating for Jews anywhere since the Holocaust.
In response, a shocked Israel mobilized a devastating military operation that, according to the Gaza health ministry, has resulted in the deaths of over 67,000 Palestinians, including both civilians and combatants. Tens of thousands more have been wounded, thousands of buildings razed, and much of the territory’s infrastructure—along with its landscape—reduced to rubble, shrapnel, and sand.
The ongoing conflict has trapped Palestinians in Gaza in a brutal cycle of displacement, forcing them to flee Israeli attacks only to find temporary, often unsafe, refuge elsewhere in the territory, then to be forced to flee again. Furthermore, severe food shortages and significant obstacles to the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid led an international panel of hunger crisis experts to declare parts of the enclave were experiencing famine by August.
Within Israel, the war and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s perceived failure to secure the release of the remaining hostages—despite widespread public support for such a move—have deeply fractured society. It has exacerbated pre-existing divisions from before October 7th. Many Israelis accuse him of prolonging the war, alleging he has foregone opportunities for a cease-fire, even after the decapitation of Hamas’s leadership, to maintain his right-wing coalition and cling to power.
The extended conflict has imposed multiple, lengthy tours of duty on reservists, straining the economy and disrupting countless lives. It has also intensified longstanding resentment towards ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are largely exempt from military service.
Israel’s conduct of the war, marked by an immense casualty toll and harrowing images of children and other civilians killed and maimed in Gaza, has drawn widespread condemnation. Statements from some of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right allies, expressing desires to depopulate and annex the territory, have fueled allegations of genocide from various bodies, including a United Nations commission and Amnesty International.
Israel vehemently denies these accusations, asserting that its military prioritizes the protection of Palestinian civilians, including issuing warnings before attacks. It also attributes civilian casualties to Hamas fighters, whom it accuses of operating from within civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools.
On Monday in Rome, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano newspaper, sharply criticized what he termed the “ongoing massacre” in Gaza. He accused the Israeli army of disregarding “the fact that it is targeting a largely defenseless population.”
The international outrage over the Gaza war has tragically contributed to a global surge in antisemitism and violence targeting Jewish communities. This includes the killings of an elderly man at a pro-hostage march in Boulder, Colorado; two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington, D.C., outside a Jewish museum; and two worshippers at a synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
The war’s continued escalation has also significantly increased Israel’s isolation on the global stage. This became strikingly evident in late September when ten nations, including traditionally staunch allies like Britain, Canada, France, and Australia, formally recognized Palestinian statehood for the first time.
Yet, by other measures, Palestinian political aspirations seem more distant than ever. The October 7th attacks caused a discernible shift to the right within the Israeli body politic. Many liberals, who might once have championed peace, now feel a profound sense of betrayal and express opposition to a Palestinian state on Israel’s border.
As Tuesday unfolded, the war on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border showed little sign of abating.
In Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes could be heard overhead at 1 a.m. and again after 5:30 a.m. With the dawn, gunfire echoed from the eastern part of the town, punctuated by the blasts of occasional artillery rounds.
After 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 fallen in the area.
Back in Kfar Azza, the community’s moment of silence at 6:29 was anything but quiet; drones whined, helicopters flew, and frequent explosions rattled the air.
“Some say what happened is receding into the distance, but for me, it’s stronger than ever,” remarked Nitzan Kaner, 37, who endured being trapped for approximately 30 hours during the militant assault. On Tuesday morning, she described a sleepless night: “I couldn’t stop thinking about what we went through.”