Oct. 7 (UPI) — Israelis attended memorial events around the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which Hamas and other militant groups killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
Hundreds of people traveled to the site of the Nova music festival near Reim in the south of the country, where 378 partygoers and security staff were killed and 44 taken hostage early on the morning of Oct. 7.
Ceremonies were also held in Kfar Aza kibbutz and Nir Oz kibbutz, the community that suffered the greatest loss of life, with a quarter of its 400 residents killed or kidnapped.
In Tel Aviv, families of the 48 hostages still being held in Gaza — only 20 of whom are believed to be still alive — gathered in Dizengoff Square, which has been unofficially dubbed hostage square, ahead of a ceremony due to get underway at 7 p.m. local time.
However, no official events were scheduled, with the day due to be marked with a national day of remembrance set for Oct. 16. This was to avoid clashing with the seven-day Sukkot holiday, a Jewish version of harvest festival or thanksgiving, which got underway Monday.
The families and supporters of the hostages held by Hamas demonstrated outside of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, calling for a cease-fire. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI
The attacks were also marked at events in Europe and around the world.
In Berlin’s Parisien Square, more than 1,000 faces of those killed and taken hostage were posted on chairs in front of the Brandenburg Gate in a memorial vigil organized by Germany’s Jewish Student Union.
No official events were scheduled, with the day due to be marked with a national day of remembrance set for Oct. 16. This was to avoid clashing with the seven-day Sukkot holiday, a Jewish version of harvest festival or thanksgiving, which got underway Monday. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI
French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement of solidarity with the victims, 51 of whom held French citizenship, and demanded the immediate release of all hostages and a cease-fire.
“Two years after the unspeakable horror of Hamas terrorism, the pain remains deep. We do not forget. We stand in solidarity with all the victims. We are working tirelessly for their release. We share the grief of the bereaved families and the anguish of those still waiting,” he wrote on X.
Smoke rises from an Israeli air strike in Gaza where Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has since killed more than 67,000 people. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI
“Such an abomination must never happen again. Let us unite all our strength to fight antisemitism everywhere and to build peace.”
Appealing to students in Britain to shun protests in support of Palestinians scheduled for Tuesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the trauma remained as raw today as it was on Oct. 7.
An Israeli IDF 155mm Howitzer artillery piece fires into the central Gaza Strip area as seen from inside southern Israel on Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI
“Time does not diminish the evil we saw that day. The worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The brutal, cold-blooded torture and murder of Jews in their own homes. And the taking of hostages, including British citizens, some of whom remain in Gaza today,” Starmer wrote in a social media post.
“Since that awful day, so many have endured a living nightmare.”
Starmer was speaking after a deadly car ramming and stabbing attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday that killed two people and seriously injured three others.
In Gaza, where Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has since killed more than 67,000 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry, Hamas marked the day with a message recalling a “glorious day” in a video that hailed its leaders and Oct. 7 gunmen as “heroes” defending “their religion and homeland.”
The message described the time since the attacks as “two years of pain, injustice, oppression and great suffering, of heavy costs” and accused the international community of “shameful silence” in response to the killing of “defenseless civilians.”
The group also bemoaned what it termed “unprecedented Arab abandonment,” referring to the failure of its fellow Arab states in the region to do anything to help the plight of Gazans.
The anniversary comes amid indirect talks between Israel and Hamas that got underway in Egypt on Monday to try to nail down a agreement based on a 20-point cease-fire plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the two-year-long war.
The first round of negotiations were aimed at agreeing on conditions for the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Speaking in the White House on Monday, Trump said that progress was being and Hamas had been making important concessions in the talks.
“I think Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important,” Trump told CNN.