News24 | Israelis mark three years since 7 October as Palestinians mourn Gaza's destruction

A family visits a memorial site near kibbutz Mefalsim, on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led 7 October, 2023 attack, in southern Israel.

Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

• Militant attacks of 7 October 2023, were deadliest day in Israel's history, with 1 200 killed and another 251 taken as hostages.
• The three-year anniversary comes 20 days ahead of Israeli election.
• The Palestinians remianing in Gaza live in makeshift tents and bombed-out buildings.

Mourners gathered in silent tribute on Wednesday at a kibbutz near the Gaza border, the same community overrun by Hamas militants three years ago on 7 October, to remember those killed in the attacks that triggered Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and drew the wider Middle East into war.

In the Gaza ⁠Strip, devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment, Palestinians sheltering among the ruins of destroyed cities recalled life before a war that displaced nearly the entire population and tore apart families.

The attacks of 7 October 2023, were the deadliest day in Israel's history. Militants led by Hamas killed 1 200 people and took 251 hostages, a cross-border incursion that traumatised Israelis who have demanded government accountability.

READ | OPINION: Global attention on Gaza has receded. The real test comes after Israel’s election

Israel's subsequent bombardment and ground operations in Gaza have ‌killed more than 74 000 people, including at least 1 400 in the past year since a US-brokered ceasefire, which halted major fighting but has failed to stop Israeli attacks or secure the disarmament of Hamas.

A very difficult day

In Kfar Aza, where Hamas militants killed dozens of Israelis before taking 19 hostages back into Gaza, residents held a vigil for those killed, standing in silence as a ‌trumpet played a solemn bugle call. A resident read out a roll call of the dead.

Zion Regev, a community leader in the kibbutz, said most residents remain displaced and have yet to return, the trauma of 7 October continuing to shape their lives.

Regev said of the vigil;

This is the first time we are doing all the things here in the kibbutz. It’s a very emotional day, it’s a very difficult day for our community, three years after October 7th.

Elsewhere in Israel, protesters marching against what they view as a lack of ‌accountability for the security failure gathered outside parliament in ⁠Jerusalem, blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing an independent inquiry into the attack.

Some protesters held signs reading: "The people will remember 7 October on 27 October," a reference to an Israeli general election 20 days away that is being viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu's long tenure in power.

A drone view of the water of the fountain at Dizengoff Square stained red to symbolise blood, on the third anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led 7 October attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Avishai Reisner/Reuters

"We need the change and we need hope and we need to know that we have a government that cares about the public and doesn't work also only for themselves," said protester Shaked Arrad.

Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security breach and resisted calls for an independent investigation. That has frustrated many in Israel, including families of those killed in the attacks, some of whom have joined the election race.

On the eve of the anniversary, he told a cabinet meeting that Israelis "remember with grief and pain our heroes who fell in the War of Redemption and our brothers and sisters who fell in the terrible massacre in the Gaza border communities".

Election polls show neither Netanyahu nor his main competitors would muster enough seats in parliament to form a coalition if ⁠a vote were held today.

Displaced Gazans recall life before Israeli assault

The anniversary is the first since the 10 October 2025, ceasefire deal, which has left Israel in control of around two-thirds of Gaza, where it has demolished remaining buildings and ordered residents out.

Hamas controls the remaining third of the territory, a narrow strip on the coast where the 2 million population mostly live in makeshift tents and bombed-out buildings.

In the latest violence, Gaza medics said on Wednesday Israel's military had carried out air ⁠strikes in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis in the south, killing at least two Palestinians and wounding others. The Israeli military said it had struck a militant target in Beit Lahia, without providing details. It did not immediately provide comment on the strike in Khan Younis.

Palestinian children walk amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during the war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

Umm Mohammad, a mother of five displaced from Gaza City and now living with her husband and children in a tent encampment in Deir Al-Balah, said the war had ripped her family apart.

"We were one happy family. The ⁠war displaced us. My son left Gaza, the other went to a separate tent, my daughters left with their husbands to other parts of the Strip and ‌we rarely meet," she said.

On this ‌day, she said, "we recall how happy, despite all problems, we were before the war broke out, destroying everything we loved."