Residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza held a solemn memorial ceremony at 6:29 a.M. On October 7, 2026, commemorating the exact time Hamas militants launched the attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostage in Gaza. The event marked the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack, which triggered Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Israeli military dismantled memorials in the West Bank dedicated to Palestinians accused of violence against Israelis, as part of commemorations on the anniversary of the attack. Palestinian officials reported at least two deaths from Israeli strikes in Gaza on the same day. The attack led to more than 75,000 Palestinian deaths and widespread destruction in the enclave.
Hamas marked the anniversary by stating that Israel failed to end the group, while the Saudi-led coalition continued its battle against Yemen’s Iran-aligned rebels, targeting civilian infrastructure. The global community, including the Israeli ambassador to France, acknowledged the anniversary as a day that shocked Israel and the region.
The anniversary also saw a Jewish-Australian who was in Israel on October 7, 2023, recall the moment she learned of Hamas’s attack. As Israelis and Palestinians mark the sombre anniversary, people in Gaza are slowly beginning to look toward the future. The war against Hamas continues, producing a human catastrophe with no clear path to peace.
