Mamdani Uses Oct. 7 Anniversary to Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’

“The suffering did not begin nor end that day,” Mamdani wrote, accusing the Israeli government of carrying out a “devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

By United with Israel Staff

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stooped to a new low on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, using a day of remembrance for the victims of the Hamas atrocities to accuse Israel of “genocide,” “apartheid” and “war crimes.”

“This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers,” Mamdani wrote Wednesday. “It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7.”

The mayor acknowledged that Hamas murdered more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others, saying New Yorkers continue to grieve alongside those carrying “that unthinkable loss.”

But Mamdani quickly turned the anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre into an attack on Israel.

“The suffering did not begin nor end that day,” he wrote, accusing the Israeli government of carrying out a “devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza” that he claimed has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, including more than 21,000 children.

Mamdani then accused Israel of dropping bombs on ambulances, residential buildings and journalists, and of turning away shipments of food aid at border crossings.

This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.

The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.

Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.

To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 7, 2026

His reference to journalists comes just days after the IDF released the results of an extensive intelligence investigation identifying at least 170 Gazans who were presented internationally as journalists or media workers but who, according to the military, were actually members of the military wings of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations.

The IDF said some worked for major international news organizations while simultaneously serving terrorist groups. The military published intelligence material, documents and other evidence that it says demonstrate their affiliations and military roles.

Mamdani’s portrayal also omitted a central reality of the Gaza war: Hamas has systematically embedded its military infrastructure among Gaza’s civilian population.

The IDF has documented weapons, command centers, rocket launchers and tunnels inside or alongside schools, hospitals, mosques, residential neighborhoods and other civilian facilities.

The military says Hamas deliberately exploits such locations in part because it knows Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians and striking protected sites.

The IDF, meanwhile, says it takes extensive measures to minimize civilian casualties, including altering, delaying and canceling strikes when civilians are detected near targets.

None of that context appeared in Mamdani’s Oct. 7 message.

Instead, the mayor used the anniversary to accuse Israel of “occupation and apartheid” and charge the United States with complicity in Israeli “war crimes” through its provision of weapons to the Jewish state.

“Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment,” Mamdani wrote.

“To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.”

Three years after Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel, murdering, kidnapping and brutalizing Israelis in the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Mamdani chose the anniversary itself to devote the bulk of his message not to the victims of Oct. 7, but to accusing the country attacked that day of genocide, apartheid and war crimes.