Oct. 7, 2023: Israel pauses to remember 3 years later

Oct. 7, 2023: Israel pauses to remember 3 years later

ILH Staff

Nationwide events began at 6:29 a.m., the exact time Hamas terrorists launched their attack. Events include a presidential visit to the border and a national ceremony tonight to mark the third anniversary of Israel's darkest day. Protesters block Tel Aviv's main highway to protest government's conduct.

Three years after the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas at break of dawn, Israel is holding memorial and commemoration ceremonies nationwide Wednesday for those murdered. At 6:29 a.m., the exact minute Hamas opened fire in 2023, civilians shut down the Ayalon Highway (Tel Aviv's main freeway) in both directions, unfurling massive banners that read, "The nation shall remember its sons and daughters." At a ceremony in Kfar Aza (a hard-hit Gaza border community), the flag was lowered to half-staff at the same moment.

The protesters said in a statement, "This morning, we stand with the families of October 7. The memory of those murdered and abandoned cannot be erased, nor can the day of the massacre."

On Tel Aviv's beaches Wednesday morning, hundreds of people gathered around a display illustrating the scale of the massacre. The display read, "Lying here are families slaughtered in their own homes, elderly pioneers and founders of the state, party lovers who had just gone out to dance, security forces personnel, citizens who wanted to help… men, women and children. Their only sin was being citizens of Israel, or visitors in the country, on October 7, 2023. This is not a fated tragedy. It is a state that lost its way. A state with no moral compass. A leadership that abandons its citizens. A disregard for the sanctity of life and mutual responsibility."

Across the country, the Israel Police commissioner and the force's senior command staff saluted and stood for a moment of silence at every site where officers and fighters fell during the initial battles to repel the invasion.

Alongside the memorial ceremonies, a national day of remembrance and protest got underway Wednesday morning, led by families from the October Council (a bereaved-families advocacy group) and protest organizations. Tens of thousands turned out at gathering points across the country to remember and to demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry (Israel's highest-level independent investigative panel).

Outside the Modiin home of Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a protest was held Wednesday morning marking three years since the massacre.

At 6:29 a.m., a Yizkor reading (a Jewish memorial prayer) and protest were held outside the Knesset, while a display called "the Fountain of Blood" was set up at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.

Alongside these, protests were held outside the homes of ministers and Knesset members who were in office at the time of the massacre, and a protest convoy departed from Caesarea, retracing the route the prime minister traveled on the morning of October 7.

At 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched the largest terrorist attack the State of Israel had ever seen. Hundreds of terrorists tore through the border fence from the Gaza Strip. They stormed Israeli communities and IDF bases. The massacre resulted in the murder of roughly 1,200 people. Thousands more were wounded, and hundreds were dragged into the Gaza Strip as hostages. That single morning shook the entire country, and to this day, Israel remains at war in what is known as the Swords of Iron war.

Between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., a display and protest were held at Trumpeldor Beach in Tel Aviv and at noon, a national pause will take place, with more than 500 authorities and bodies taking part. "Three years have passed, and the truth still hasn't been fully investigated," said families from the October Council, adding that the coming election campaign will put this question front and center as well.

Also Wednesday morning, at 6:29 a.m., prime ministerial candidate Gadi Eisenkot, who lost his son, Gal Meir Eisenkot, and his nephew, Maor Cohen, in the war, arrived with Shira and Moshe Shapira, the parents of the hero Aner Shapira, at the roadside shelter (a concrete bus-stop bomb shelter) in Reim where Aner fought, saved lives, and was killed

Family members of the late Libby Cohen Meguri stood for a moment of silence at 8:11 a.m., at the exact time and place where she was murdered on Road 232, near the entrance to Kibbutz Reim, as she tried to flee the Nova festival.

At 8:11 a.m., Libby called her family and told them she had been shot. As she said goodbye to her mother, father, twin brother and sister, Libby told them, "They're coming back to shoot me again." The family then heard a burst of gunfire, and Libby was murdered while her family listened to everything happen. The family later created a graffiti memorial recreating the way Libby was found.

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Israel remembers the third anniversary of the October 7 onslaught by Hamas | LIVE BLOG