Israel Marks Third Anniversary of October 7 Attack as Hostage Families and Survivors Demand Accountability

Israelis across the country paused on Wednesday to commemorate the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault, the deadliest single-day attack in the nation's history, which killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage. Memorial ceremonies were held at the sites of the worst violence, including the Nova music festival, Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park, where families of victims gathered to mourn loved ones and reflect on the trauma that continues to shape Israeli society.

At the Nova dance festival site near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel, bereaved families and survivors assembled on Wednesday morning to honour the 378 people killed there when Hamas-led gunmen launched their dawn assault from the Gaza border. Witnesses have described scenes of extreme brutality, with festival-goers shot, sexually abused, and tortured during the attack. Forty-four people were kidnapped from the site, and only 25 were brought back alive from Gaza.

Ahuva Yavin Mayze, whose 21-year-old daughter Adi was shot and killed at Nova, told the BBC that what unfolded at the site was "dystopic, unimaginable." Her testimony formed part of a broader outpouring of grief that characterised the day's events, as parents, siblings, and friends visited the improvised memorials that have grown around the festival grounds over the past three years.

Shlomo Sharf, a former Israeli footballer, paid tribute to his granddaughter May Naim, 24, who was also killed at the festival. Speaking to Channel 12, he said: "Today is a difficult day, not only for me but for a large part of the nation." His words echoed a sentiment expressed by many Israelis who have struggled to process the scale of loss sustained on that single morning.

At Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where 64 residents were killed and 19 taken hostage on October 7, crowds filed into the small cemetery to pay their respects. Zion Regev, a community leader, told Reuters that most surviving residents had not yet returned to their homes because of the psychological toll of the attack. "This is the first time we are doing all the things here in the kibbutz," he said. "It's a very emotional day, it's a very difficult day for our community, three years after 7 October."

Former hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife Shiri and two young sons Ariel and Kfir were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and later killed in captivity in Gaza, was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying: "Shiri, Ariel and Kfir. Sorry. Sorry that you are up there and I am here." His statement underscored the enduring anguish of families whose relatives were taken hostage and never returned.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced calls from protesters for an independent state inquiry into the security failures that day, said in a statement released by his office that he had lit a memorial candle commemorating every victim of October 7. "The nation unites on this day in the longing for our dear ones," he said. "We will complete the mission: we have settled the score and will continue settling the score with all the murderers."

At a ceremony on Monday marking the Jewish calendar's anniversary of the attack, Netanyahu said Israel had killed 4,000 out of the 6,000 Palestinians who infiltrated Israel from Gaza that day. The figure has not been independently verified, and the prime minister has rejected any personal responsibility for the security breakdown that allowed the attack to occur.

In Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square, anti-government protesters dyed the fountain red to symbolise blood, marking the anniversary in a manner that combined mourning with political dissent. The fountain has become a memorial site for those killed, with pictures, flowers, and messages laid around its basin wall. Protesters also briefly blocked one of the city's main highways on Wednesday morning to hold a moment of silence, carrying banners that read "the people will remember their sons and daughters," alongside others that said "a complete failure" and "guilty" next to an image of Netanyahu.

The political dimension of the anniversary has intensified in recent months, as many senior Israeli defence and security officials have resigned or been fired since the attack. However, no independent commission of inquiry has been established into what remains Israel's worst security failure, a point of contention that has fuelled sustained protests against the government.

In response to the October 7 attack, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 74,200 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN. Violence has continued in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreed almost a year ago, and living conditions for the 2.1 million people living there remain dire, with widespread destruction of infrastructure and limited access to basic necessities.

The anniversary comes amid a fragile and contested ceasefire that has neither fully halted hostilities nor brought meaningful relief to Gaza's civilian population. International observers have warned that the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic, with many families displaced and dependent on aid that is frequently impeded by logistical and political obstacles.

For Israelis, the day represented both a collective act of remembrance and a moment of unresolved reckoning. While official ceremonies emphasised unity and the promise of continued military action against those responsible, the protests in Tel Aviv and elsewhere reflected a deepening divide over accountability and the direction of the country's leadership. The absence of a state inquiry remains a central grievance for many who believe that the failures of October 7 must be examined transparently before any healing can begin.

As night fell, crowds gathered at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park for the national memorial event, where Ido Yakir, a man who reportedly helped fend off Hamas attackers at Kibbutz Magen, praised IDF troops who "fought so bravely" during the raid. He told those assembled that Israel would remember everyone "who knew that they had to give their lives in order to save others." The ceremony concluded with prayers and songs, but for many families, the pain of three years without answers remained as raw as the day itself.