Thousands gather in Israel to mark two years since Hamas' 7 October attack

Thousands of people met in southern Israel on Tuesday to remember the dead as the country marks two years since the Hamas-led attack that sparked the current war in Gaza.

The main memorial in Tel Aviv, planned for later on Tuesday evening and organised by the bereaved families, is separate from a ceremony that the government will hold on the anniversary next week, according to the Hebrew calendar.

Nearly 400 Israelis were killed and dozens abducted from the Nova music festival in the border community of Reim.

Over the last two years, it has emerged as a memorial site, with portraits of the kidnapped and the fallen.

Though there was no official ceremony at the Nova site, due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot which coincides with the anniversary, scores of people gathered to share memories of relatives and friends who were killed.

Nova Festival massacre

At 6:29 am, the exact time the attack began, the music, the same track that festival attendees were listening to at the time, stopped for a moment of silence.

People embraced and spoke of their loss. Alon Muskinov, 28, who was at the festival and lost three of his closest friends, said the survivors live with the horrors of that day.

"We are reliving this every day anew, every day we remember them," he said.

Yehuda Rahmani, whose daughter Sharon, a police officer at the festival, was also among those killed, said he visits the Nova site daily to be at the last place where she was alive.

To this day, Rahmani keeps hoping he will run into a survivor who could tell him about his daughter's last moments. He is angry at the government for not launching an inquiry into the security failures of that day.

"When you don’t know what happened, it makes it so much harder," he said.

The Tel Aviv ceremony is organised by Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother Alon was among three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli forces after they escaped captivity early in the war.

Shay Dickmann, who lost her aunt outside her house in Kibbutz Be'eri on the day of the attack while her cousin, Carmel Gat, was taken hostage by Hamas and killed 11 months later, said all everyone wants is for the war to end.

"There is a deal on the table, there is an opportunity to end this war and bring everybody back home," she said.

"We all deserve it, we deserve it, our neighbours deserve it, we want this war to end and all to come back to their homes."

Meanwhile, explosions echoed from Gaza and smoke billowed over the Strip. The army said a rocket was launched from northern Gaza in the morning, but no damage or injuries were reported.

Israeli forces have arrested at least 35 people in the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and elsewhere since Monday, according to a group representing Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the arrests but said “regular counterterrorism activity” was under way.

On 7 October 2023, thousands of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a surprise barrage of rockets.

They stormed army bases, farming communities and a music festival, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The militants abducted 251 others, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals.

But 48 hostages remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to still be alive.