Israel Marks Three Years Since Oct. 7 Massacre

“Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time,” Netanyahu warned.

By United with Israel Staff

Israel bowed its head in remembrance Monday as the country marked three years since the Oct. 7 massacre, with ceremonies honoring the victims of the Hamas-led attack and those who have fallen in the war that followed.

The day of remembrance began at 6:29 a.m., the exact time Hamas launched its assault on southern Israel three years ago.

At the Zikim military base near the Gaza border, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and members of the General Staff Forum observed a minute of silence alongside bereaved families and soldiers wounded in the battle for the base.

The senior commanders later toured Zikim and heard an account of the fighting that took place there on Oct. 7, when Israeli troops battled Hamas terrorists who attacked the base.

The ceremony also included a panel with bereaved relatives, soldiers who fought on Oct. 7 and former hostage Avinatan Or.

“Three years ago, on Simchat Torah 5784, the IDF failed in its mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” Zamir said. “Hamas terrorists infiltrated communities and bases, massacred, abducted and left behind deep destruction.”

Zamir said Israel now faces a dramatically different security reality following three years of fighting across multiple fronts, but stressed that the military’s subsequent achievements cannot erase what happened that morning.

“Even these achievements that have changed reality do not erase the failure of October 7 and do not diminish our responsibility for it,” he said.

“That responsibility requires us not only to remember, but also to change,” Zamir continued. “Out of the failure and bitter lapse, we must lead toward revival and the strengthening of the nation.”

Zamir also paid tribute to the soldiers and civilians who fought back during the attack, telling bereaved families that their loved ones were among the first to understand the scale of the danger, take action and save others.

Later Monday morning, Israel’s senior political and security leadership gathered at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem for the state memorial ceremony honoring those who fell on Oct. 7 and throughout the war.

President Isaac Herzog used his address to call for a determined and impartial investigation into the failures that allowed the massacre to occur.

“We have a duty to investigate with determination and courage, without bias, and to understand: How did this happen to us?” Herzog said. “No passage of time permits us to blur that obligation.”

Herzog said some lessons are already clear, including the need to heed warnings and troubling signs.

He also warned against deepening divisions within Israeli society, particularly as the country heads toward elections.

“In these days, in the midst of an election campaign, we must look directly at the flashing warning lights, those signaling dangerous disputes and deep division,” Herzog said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, used his address to vow that Hamas would never again govern the Gaza Strip and warned that those responsible for the Oct. 7 attack remain targets for Israel.

“There will be no Hamas rule in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time. Day after day, we are settling accounts with these vile murderers.”

Netanyahu also pledged that Israel would continue striking Hezbollah and pointed to the dramatic weakening of Iran following the regional war.

“The tyrannical regime in Tehran is fighting for its life, weaker than it has ever been, and its end will be to pass from the world,” he said.

Monday is Israel’s official national day of remembrance for the Oct. 7 massacre and the war, observed according to the Hebrew calendar on 24 Tishrei. This year, it falls on Oct. 5, two days before the third anniversary on the Gregorian calendar.

Memorial events are being held across the country throughout the day, with Israeli flags lowered to half-mast at government institutions and military bases in memory of those murdered and killed since Oct. 7, 2023.