Israel marks three years since October 7 Hamas attacks amid ongoing Gaza conflict

Three years have passed since the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched coordinated attacks across southern Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people and left 251 others in captivity. Israel's response has been a military campaign of unprecedented scale in Gaza, one that has reshaped the territory and the lives of nearly everyone who lives there.

The numbers alone convey the weight of what followed. According to Gaza's health ministry, at least 74,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations since the offensive began. More than 1.9 million people—roughly 90 percent of Gaza's population—have been displaced from their homes, many of them multiple times over. The United Nations estimates that 80 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. Of those displaced, 1.2 million are currently living in tents or makeshift shelters. The humanitarian situation remains what UN officials describe as "overwhelming," with widespread shortages of water, food, and medicine affecting the civilian population.

On the Israeli side, the question of the 251 hostages taken on October 7 has defined much of the conflict's trajectory. Of that number, 168 were eventually freed or rescued through various means. Eighty-three were killed. In January 2026, the Israeli military recovered the body of Master Sergeant Ran Gvili, the last hostage to be returned from Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked the recovery by stating that Israel had fulfilled its commitment to bring everyone home. A former hostage who spent nearly 500 days in captivity told the BBC that with Gvili's return, the released captives could finally "breathe and start our lives again."

The personal toll surfaces in smaller moments. At Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel that was attacked on October 7, residents gathered at dawn three years later to remember seven members of the civil defence unit who were killed by Hamas gunmen that morning. As the flag was lowered to half-mast and their names were read aloud, the sound of artillery fire from Gaza—just a few kilometres away—continued in the background. The widow of the deputy commander described receiving a final message from her husband at 7:21 that morning: "I get a message saying he loves me. It's the best present I ever got. After that, I only know things from stories."

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in October 2025, negotiated as part of a broader peace plan that included provisions for the suspension of military operations and the handover of remaining hostages. The agreement has proven fragile. Gaza's health ministry reports that more than 1,460 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire was declared. The Israeli military maintains that these operations target Hamas commanders and operatives. The distinction between military necessity and civilian harm remains contested, with scholars of genocide having declared in the previous year that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide—a charge Israel has consistently rejected, arguing instead that its military campaign is justified as self-defence.

As Israel marked the third anniversary with memorial events across the country, including at the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed and taken hostage, the conflict remained unresolved. The ceasefire holds in name, but the underlying conflict—the questions of security, displacement, accountability, and coexistence—remains fundamentally unsettled. Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins. Its population continues to face acute shortages of basic necessities. And in Israel, the trauma of October 7 continues to shape national memory and policy, even as the human cost of the response accumulates on both sides.