Thousands of people converged on southern Israel on Tuesday to mourn the dead as the nation marked two years since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack plunged the region into a devastating war, while Israel and Hamas pressed on with indirect peace talks in Egypt.
The main memorial in Tel Aviv, planned for later in the evening and organized by the bereaved families, is separate from a ceremony that the government will hold on the anniversary next week according to the Hebrew calendar.
The split in the ceremonies reflects deep divisions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, which many blame for the failure to secure a ceasefire that would free the remaining hostages held by the militants.
In the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than an estimated 65,000 people and razed towns and cities, those who can are fleeing another Israeli invasion of Gaza City while others are sheltering in place. Many are unable to make the arduous and costly journey south.
Ohad Ben Ami and his wife were among the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
“I was sitting on my bed and my wife was sitting on the floor with a blanket on her [head],” Ben Ami told CBC News correspondent Paul Hunter as he showed him what remained of his home in Kibbutz Be’eri, ahead of the two-year anniversary since the attack.
“What are you thinking at that moment?” Hunter asked.
“That now it’s my time to die,” Ben Ami said.
Over the two years since the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival at Kibbutz Re’im, the site has become a commemoration to the 378 people killed in Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
His wife was released after 54 days, but Ben Ami was held for 491 days until he was released on Feb. 8.
He said he hopes this deal will finally see the release of the remaining hostages.
“I hope that all the 48 hostages will come back to their families, and [for] our nation and their people [to] get the chance to recover.”
The worst attack in Israel’s history
It’s been two years since thousands of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a surprise barrage of rockets. They stormed army bases, farming communities and an outdoor music festival, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
They abducted 251 others, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals. Forty-eight hostages remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to still be alive. Hamas has said it will release them only in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all of the captives are returned and Hamas has been disarmed.
The attack set in motion a cascade of events that led Israel into combat with Iran and its allies across the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which suffered major losses. The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran’s military and nuclear program in a 12-day war in June.
Israel has killed several top militants as well as Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, and it has vastly depleted the military capabilities of its enemies while seizing control over most of Gaza as well as parts of Lebanon and Syria.
But the failure to return the hostages has left the country deeply divided, with weekly mass protests against Netanyahu. Israel is more isolated internationally than it has been in decades.
A memorial at the scene of a massacre
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 that coincides with the anniversary, thousands of people visited throughout the day to share memories of relatives and friends who were killed, weaving through hundreds of photos encircling the spot where the DJ booth stood.
Many gathered before sunrise, playing the same track of music that was playing two years ago, stopping for a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. local time, the exact time the attack began.
People embraced and spoke of their loss. Alon Muskinov, 28, who was at the festival and lost three of his closest friends, said survivors don’t need an anniversary to remember.
“We don’t need a specific day, because we live this every day anew,” he said.
Yehuda Rahmani, whose daughter Sharon — a police officer at the festival — was also among those killed, said he visits the Nova site every day. He drinks his morning cup of coffee next to a photo of his daughter 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 security failures of that day.
“When you don’t know what happened, it makes it so much harder,” he said.
When Hamas attacked the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, Gal Dalal was able to escape — but his brother Guy has been held hostage in Gaza ever since. And while a new U.S.-brokered release plan is giving Gal new hope, the two years of fighting to free his brother have him rethinking what he believes in.
Israeli artillery and the boom of explosions in Gaza echoed across the Nova site as smoke billowed over the enclave. The Israeli military 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 underway.
In Tel Aviv, dozens gathered at a memorial site that was set up in a city square.
Shay Dickmann, whose aunt was killed in Kibbutz Be’eri and whose 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.”
