Israelis mark three years since October 7 as election looms and Gaza lies in ruins

On Wednesday, Israelis marked three years since Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, the deadliest day in the country's history. They held a vigil at the site of the Nova music festival near the Gaza border, where 348 young people were murdered, and gathered at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

This anniversary is different from the first two: for the first time, no hostages remain in Gaza. All were freed in exchanges with Hamas for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and the remains of the last Israeli hostage were recovered in January.

In Gaza, there were no ceremonies, only the ruins. Israel's bombardment and ground operations have killed more than 74,000 people, according to Gaza's health authorities, around half of them women and children; UN agencies consider the ministry's figures generally reliable. About 90 percent of Gaza's population has been displaced, often multiple times, and more than 1.2 million people face acute hunger. A ceasefire that took effect a year ago halted the heaviest fighting, but Israel has continued near daily strikes and controls nearly two thirds of the enclave. More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began; seven Israeli soldiers have died in the same period. On Wednesday morning, with mourners gathered at the Nova site, at least three more Palestinians were reported killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities.

The war's unresolved core is unchanged: Hamas has not disarmed, Israeli forces have not withdrawn, and Gaza's reconstruction has barely begun.

The anniversary falls 20 days before Israel's election on October 27, the first since the attack, and the vote is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long tenure. Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security failure and resisted calls for an independent investigation, a stance that has angered many bereaved families. At least nine relatives of October 7 victims are running for parliament themselves, across parties, saying they want to heal the country's wounds. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found 68 percent of Jewish Israelis call the events of October 7 a central factor in their vote. Current polls show neither Netanyahu's bloc nor his rivals able to assemble a governing coalition.

Hamas, for its part, marked the day by praising the October 7 attack as heroism and national solidarity. Three years on, the two peoples' accounts of that day have not moved an inch closer together, and the election in 20 days will show whether Israelis have decided who is to blame for what followed.