- Home
- News
- World
The failure to return the hostages has left the nation deeply divided, with weekly mass protests towards PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Published – October 07, 2025 09:24 am IST – Reim, Israel
An Israeli soldier covers his face as he visits the location the place revellers had been killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border assault by Hamas militants on the Nova music competition, close to the Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, on October 6, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP
The important memorial ceremony is being organised by bereaved households, not the federal government, reflecting deep divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s management, which many blame for the failure to safe a ceasefire that may free the remaining hostages held by the militant group.
In the Gaza Strip, the place Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed tens of 1000’s of individuals and razed total cities and cities, those that can are fleeing one other Israeli invasion of Gaza City whereas others are sheltering in place. Many are unable to make the arduous and expensive journey south.
Worst assault in Israel’s historical past
It’s been two years since 1000’s of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a shock barrage of rockets. They stormed military bases, farming communities and an outside music competition, killing some 1,200 folks, largely civilians, together with ladies, youngsters and older adults.
They kidnapped 251 others, most of whom have since been launched in ceasefires or different offers. Forty-eight stay inside Gaza, round 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive. Hamas has mentioned it’ll launch them solely in change for a long-lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu has vowed to proceed the struggle till all the captives are returned and Hamas has been disarmed.
The assault set in movement a cascade of occasions that led Israel into fight with Iran and its allies throughout the area, together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which suffered main losses. The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran’s navy and nuclear program in a 12-day struggle in June.
Israel has killed a number of high militants in addition to Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, and it has vastly depleted the navy capabilities of its enemies whereas seizing management over most of Gaza in addition to components of Lebanon and Syria.
But the failure to return the hostages has left the nation deeply divided, with weekly mass protests towards Mr. Netanyahu. Israel is extra remoted internationally than it has been in a long time.
Memorial on the scene of a bloodbath
Nearly 400 Israelis had been killed and dozens kidnapped from the Nova music competition within the border group of Reim. Over the final two years, it has emerged as a memorial website, with portraits of the kidnapped and fallen affixed to Israeli flags. Bereaved households plan to erect a sukkah — a festive, short-term shelter — there in honor of the Jewish vacation of Sukkot, which coincides with the anniversary.
There was no official ceremony on the Nova website as a result of Jewish vacation.
In Pictures: Israel-Hamas struggle — a yr on
October 7, 2023: Hamas militants stormed throughout the border from Gaza into Israel in what would grow to be the deadliest assault within the nation’s historical past. At the tip of the Jewish vacation of Sukkot, the militants launched their assault by land, air, and sea. Militants kidnapped 251 hostages on October 7, 97 of whom are nonetheless captive in Gaza, together with 33 the Israeli navy has mentioned are lifeless.
Soon after the assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced “We are at struggle.” He declared a mass military mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘spherical,’ however at struggle.” Israel battered Gaza on October 8 after struggling its bloodiest assault in a long time, when Hamas fighters rampaged by means of Israeli cities killing 600 and abducting dozens extra, because the spiralling violence threatened a significant new struggle in West Asia. Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque, and the houses of Hamas officers in Gaza, killing greater than 370 folks, together with 20 youngsters, as Mr. Netanyahu vowed “mighty vengeance for this black day”.
October 27, 2023: Internet and cellphone companies collapsed within the Gaza Strip below intensified bombardment, largely reducing off its 2.3 million folks from the skin world and one another, as Israel’s navy “expanded” its floor operations within the besieged territory. The navy’s announcement signalled it was transferring nearer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, the place it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks in the past. This display screen seize taken from handout footage launched by the Israeli military on October 26, 2023, exhibits a “targeted raid” in northern Gaza with tanks and infantry.
November 2023: Israeli forces struck close to a number of hospitals in Gaza City because the navy pushed deeper into dense city neighborhoods in its battle with Hamas militants, prompting rising numbers of civilians to flee towards the south of the besieged territory. Israel accused Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals and utilizing the Shifa Hospital advanced as its important command middle, which the militant group and hospital workers deny, saying Israel is making a pretext to strike it. In this picture from November 6, 2023, a person walks between the our bodies wrapped in shrouds of these killed in Israeli bombardment in Deir Balah within the central Gaza Strip, on the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital in the identical metropolis.
November 24, 2023: After 48 days of gunfire and bombardment that claimed 1000’s of lives, a four-day truce within the Israel-Hamas struggle started. Palestinian prisoners (carrying gray jumpers) cheer after being launched from the Israeli Ofer navy facility in Baytunia within the occupied West Bank in change for hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza, on November 24, 2023.
February 29, 2024: Israeli forces in war-torn Gaza opened fireplace on a crowd of Palestinians at an support distribution level on February 29, killing a minimum of 104 folks and wounding over 700 in line with Palestinian well being officers. A witness advised AFP that the violence unfolded when 1000’s of individuals determined for meals rushed in the direction of support vans on the metropolis’s western Nabulsi roundabout. This picture seize from a handout video launched by the Israeli Army exhibits what the Army says are Gazans round support vans in Gaza City.
March 2024: The U.N. warned that Israel’s extreme restrictions on support into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its navy offensive may quantity to utilizing hunger as a “weapon of struggle”, which might be a “struggle crime”. The devastating struggle since Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel has left roughly half of Gazans — round 1.1 million folks — experiencing “catastrophic” starvation, the evaluation mentioned. In this picture from October 2023, Palestinian youngsters obtain meals at a UN-run faculty in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip.
March 2, 2024: U.S. navy C-130 cargo planes dropped meals in pallets over Gaza. The airdrop was the primary of many introduced by President Joe Biden on. The support was be coordinated with Jordan, which has additionally performed airdrops to ship meals to Gaza. Since the struggle started on Oct 7, Israel barred entry of meals, water, medication and different provides, aside from a trickle of support coming into the south from Egypt on the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing.
April 2, 2024: An Israeli airstrike kills six worldwide support staff with the World Central Kitchen charity and their Palestinian driver, hours after it introduced a brand new shipload of meals into northern Gaza. Footage confirmed the our bodies of the lifeless at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital within the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. Several of them wore protecting gear with the charity’s brand. In this picture, a person shows the blood-stained British, Polish, and Australian passports.
April 13, 2024: Iran launched a number of drones towards Israel, marking the primary time Iran had ever launched a full-scale navy assault on Israel, regardless of a long time of enmity relationship again to the nation’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran had been threatening to assault Israel since an airstrike final week killed two Iranian generals in Syria. Israel has not commented on that assault, however Iran accused it of being behind it. This picture exhibits an anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles in the direction of Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel.
May 7, 2024: An Israeli tank brigade seized management on of the Gaza aspect of the Rafah crossing with Egypt as Israel moved ahead with an offensive within the southern metropolis. Israeli tanks moved into the southern a part of town in a single day, whereas warplanes bombed areas close to the essential Rafah border crossing, killing a minimum of 23 Palestinians and injuring a number of others. The invasion, described by the U.S. as a “restricted operation,” unfolded a day after the Israeli navy ordered over 1,000,000 folks sheltering in Rafah to evacuate components of the southern Gaza Strip metropolis and relocate to an “expanded humanitarian zone” close to Khan Younis, in preparation for an assault to “eradicate” Hamas. Photo exhibits Israeli navy automobiles function within the Gazan aspect of the Rafah Crossing.
July 27, 2024: A rocket assault on a soccer discipline within the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed 12 youngsters and wounded a number of others, hours after an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group. The strike, the deadliest assault on an Israeli goal because the combating between the 2 foes erupted in October 2023, raised fears of of a broader conflagration within the area. This picture exhibits mourners from the Druze minority encompass the our bodies of among the 12 youngsters and youths killed in a rocket strike at a soccer discipline, throughout their funeral, within the village of Majdal Shams, within the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
July 31, 2024: The political chief of the Palestinian militant group Hamas Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, the place he had been attending the inauguration of the nation’s new president. Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, however was already a widely known determine having grow to be Palestinian prime minister in 2006. This picture exhibits Iranians comply with a truck, middle, carrying the coffins of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, throughout their funeral ceremony at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, on August 1, 2024.
August 28, 2024: Israel pressed on with a large-scale navy operation within the occupied West Bank. Hamas mentioned 10 of its fighters had been killed in numerous areas, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an eleventh casualty, with out saying whether or not he was a fighter or a civilian. An Israeli automobile operates on the street throughout an Israeli raid in Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, within the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on August 29, 2024.
September 18, 2024: In a complicated, distant assault, pagers utilized by a whole lot of members of Hezbollah exploded nearly concurrently in Lebanon and Syria killing a minimum of 9 folks — together with an 8-year-old lady — and wounding 1000’s extra. A Lebanese military bomb disposal specialist carrying a protecting gear prepares, along with his comrade, to detonate a walkie-talkie that was discovered on the parking of the American University Hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon.
September 27, 2024: A wave of air raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early on as Israel stepped up assaults on Hezbollah, after a large strike on the Iran-backed motion’s command centre that ended up killing the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah. Photo exhibits smoke rising above Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, 2024.
October 1, 2024: Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s marketing campaign towards Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Iran has vowed to retaliate following assaults that killed the highest management of its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. The firing of missiles got here after Israel mentioned its troops had launched floor raids into Lebanon, although it described the forays as restricted. People are seen visiting the location of the stays of an Iranian missile within the Negev desert close to Arad within the aftermath of an Iranian missile assault on Israel.
A mix image exhibits Palestinian lady Inas Abu Maamar, 36, embracing the physique of her 5-year-old niece Saly, who was killed in an Israeli strike, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023 (L). Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem gained the distinguished 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for this picture. In the second picture Inas visits a broken cemetery the place Saly was buried, in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, on September 11, 2024.
1/3
The important memorial ceremony shall be held in Tel Aviv and embody musical performances and speeches. It’s being organized by Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother, Alon, was amongst three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli forces after they escaped captivity early within the struggle.
Israel and Hamas talk about Trump peace plan
Israel and Hamas met on Monday within the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to debate a brand new peace plan put ahead by US President Donald Trump. The talks had been to proceed Tuesday.
The struggle has already killed over 67,000 Palestinians, in line with Gaza’s Health Ministry, a part of the Hamas-run authorities, which doesn’t say what number of had been civilians or combatants. It says ladies and youngsters make up round half the lifeless, and lots of impartial consultants say its figures are essentially the most dependable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s offensive has displaced round 90% of Gaza’s inhabitants of some 2 million, usually a number of occasions, and restrictions on humanitarian support have contributed to a extreme starvation disaster, with consultants saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.
Experts and main rights teams have accused Israel of genocide, and the International Criminal Court is in search of the arrest of Netanyahu and his former protection minister for utilizing hunger as a way of struggle.
Israel vehemently denies the allegations, saying it’s waging a lawful struggle of self-defense and taking extraordinary measures to keep away from harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the loss of life and destruction in Gaza as a result of the militants are deeply embedded in populated areas.
Hamas portrayed the October 7 assault as a response to a long time of Israeli land seizures, settlement building and navy occupation. But the assault has exacted a catastrophic toll on the Palestinians, whose dream of an impartial state seems extra distant than ever.
Published – October 07, 2025 09:24 am IST
- Access 10 free tales each month
- Save tales to learn later
- Access to touch upon each story
- Sign-up/handle your publication subscriptions with a single click on
- Get notified by e-mail for early entry to reductions & affords on our merchandise
${ ind + 1 } ${ system }Last lively – ${ la }
Leave a Comment