Israelis mark three years since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering a military assault that destroyed much of Gaza, where conditions remain dire despite a year-old ceasefire that is meant to halt the war for good.
The attacks, during which militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza, marked the deadliest day in Israel's history. Israel's subsequent bombardment and ground operations have killed more than 74,000 people in Gaza, health authorities there say.
On Wednesday, Israelis will hold a vigil at the site of the Nova music festival near the Gaza border, where 348 young people were killed by militants during the attack.
They will also hold an event commemorating the anniversary at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.
The anniversary is the first for Israelis without any hostages still held in Gaza, with those dead and alive exchanged in swaps with Hamas for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The remains of the last Israeli hostage were recovered in January.
It also comes just 20 days ahead of Israel's first election since the attack, a vote that is viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long tenure in power.
Netanyahu has rejected blame for the security breach and resisted calls for an independent investigation. That has frustrated many in Israel, including families of those killed in the attacks, some of whom have joined the election race.
A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute showed that 68 per cent of Jewish Israelis said that the events of 7 October were a very central or fairly central element in their decision of which party to vote for.
Election polls show neither Netanyahu nor his main competitors would muster enough seats in parliament to form a coalition if a vote were held today.
The anniversary is also the first since U.S.-brokered 10 October 2025 ,ceasefire deal that halted major fighting but has failed to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza or secure the disarmament of Hamas and other militant groups.
The deal left Israel in control of some 53 per cent of Gaza, since expanded by Israeli forces to nearly two-thirds. Hamas controls the remaining third, where the 2 million population mostly live in makeshift tents and bombed out buildings.
U.S. President Donald Trump's “Board of Peace” has proposed several plans that would see Gaza rebuilt. But those plans, which fail to account for the property rights of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed, have failed to gain the buy-in of Israel or Hamas, which are still deadlocked in ceasefire talks.
The two have yet to agree on the terms of a deal that would see Hamas lay down its weapons in exchange for Israeli troop withdrawals. Israel says it will not pull back until Hamas fully disarms; Hamas says it has agreed to a phased process but will not disarm so long as Israeli attacks continue.
Israel has kept up a bombing campaign in Gaza that has killed several Hamas militants in recent months but has also killed many civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, whose death figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
Police fired tear gas at protesters blockading French high schools on Tuesday as students, teachers and parents took to the streets on the biggest day of action in a wave of demonstrations against understaffed and dilapidated classrooms.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance has said Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction to its nuclear enrichment capacity if the seven-month war between the two countries is to end.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 7 October 2026. These are the top five things to expect from the CIS summit in Turkmenistan.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will make his debut at an expanded meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Turkmenistan on Wednesday, the Kremlin has said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project could become a cornerstone of economic transformation in Armenia and the wider region, while boosting investment and regional connectivty.
Central Asian countries are strengthening sanitary and quarantine controls amid the situation in Russia’s Irkutsk region. Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have introduced preventive measures following the death of an employee of a plague research institute in the city of Shelekhov.
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