Re’im, southern Israel — The folks of Israel have been marking a grim milestone on Tuesday, mourning their lifeless two years after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led terrorist assault. Some 1,200 folks have been killed that day, most of them civilians, and 251 others taken hostage. Israeli officers imagine 48 persons are nonetheless being held captive in Gaza, solely 20 of them believed to be alive.
Their households are determined for a deal to finish the warfare and produce their family members house.
Oblique negotiations between Hamas and Israel have been getting into a second day in Egypt, spurred by President Trump’s requires each side to comply with a ceasefire based mostly on his just lately introduced 20-point peace proposal.
Stress has been mounting on Israel and Hamas not solely from the White Home however from around the globe, with lots of Israel’s Arab neighbors pushing Hamas to just accept a peace settlement and backing Mr. Trump’s proposal.
Individuals stroll previous portraits of Israelis held hostage within the Gaza Strip since 2023, throughout a rally in Tel Aviv marking two years because the Hamas terrorist assault, Oct. 7, 2025.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
In a message marking what he referred to as “essentially the most brutal terrorist assault in Israel’s historical past,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the U.S. authorities’s “unwavering assist for Israel’s proper to exist, to defend itself, and to make sure the protection of its folks.”
Rubio mentioned the Trump administration was “main the hassle to safe the discharge of all hostages, finish Hamas’s rule in Gaza, and advance a sturdy peace that ensures not solely Israel’s safety, however generational peace and prosperity for the area.”
“I’ve mentioned it again and again, and I’m repeating it at present with even larger urgency: Launch the hostages, unconditionally and instantly,” United Nations Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres mentioned in an announcement. “Put an finish to the hostilities in Gaza, Israel and the area now. Cease making civilians pay with their lives and their futures.”
The primary Oct. 7 memorial occasion, in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Sq., was organized by the bereaved households — not the federal government, reflecting deep divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s management because the assault.
Many Israelis blame him for failing to deliver all of the hostages house.
“We will not transfer on, we will not,” mentioned Eden Ganam, whose cousin, Yosef Ohana, remains to be in captivity in Gaza. “This isn’t the identical life that we had earlier than October 7. “We thought it could be possibly a month, a few days, however two years?”
The Hamas assault sparked Israel’s ongoing, devastating warfare within the Gaza Strip. Greater than 67,000 folks have been killed, in keeping with the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run Ministry of Well being. Large swaths of the coastal enclave, house to greater than 2 million folks, have been destroyed.
On Monday, the neighborhood of Nir Oz — the place greater than 400 residents have been both killed or kidnapped — got here collectively in tune and prayer.
Irit Lahav was hiding together with her daughter of their secure room on that day two years in the past. “We have been holding arms, and we thought, ‘That is it. These are our final minutes,'” she mentioned. “We simply mentioned loving phrases to one another. Goodbye phrases.”
One other memorial was arrange Tuesday on the website of the Nova music pageant, near the Gaza border within the southern Israeli desert. It was overrun by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 two years in the past, and virtually 380 folks have been killed.
Guests on the Nova music pageant memorial website are seen two years after the Hamas terror assault, close to Kibbutz Re’im, in southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2025.
Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg/Getty
Orit Baron, whose daughter Yuval was among the many pageant goers killed that day, alongside together with her fiance Moshe Shuva, advised the French information company AFP that she got here to the location “to be together with her, as a result of that is the final time that she was alive.”
Baron was amongst dozens of associates and relations of these killed, and others simply wishing to pay their respects. Many lit candles and stood for one minute in silence, remembering these misplaced to terrorism.
As they did, the sounds of the warfare in Gaza, only a few miles away, continued reverberating by the air.
Agnes Reau and
Tucker Reals
contributed to this report.
Disaster within the Center East
Extra
Debora Patta