Gaza War/7. October | Commemoration of a massacre and excessive destruction

Incredible suffering on both sides: In Israel, a memorial installation on the beach in Tel Aviv on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Hamas attack (left); A Palestinian boy mourns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus for his father, who was killed in a raid by Israeli settlers and the army in the village of Burqa on October 7, 2026. Photo: AFP/Jack Suez (left) and AFP/Zain Jaafar (right) How do we remember trauma, how do we do justice to the memory of one of the worst massacres of Jews after the Second World War? How do Palestinians perceive this event? What future lies ahead for them, especially in an almost completely destroyed Gaza Strip?

After October 7, 2023, nothing will be the same as it was before. This applies to Israeli society as well as to Palestinian society. But organized commemoration of the dead is only possible in Israel; There is still war in the Gaza Strip, and people often have to use their hands to dig out the bodies buried under the rubble. And today, October 7th, there were deaths again: The Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank reported that settlers and soldiers had attacked the village of Burqa near Nablus and that a man had been shot. According to Palestinian media, the 44-year-old was an officer in the Palestinian security forces.

Meanwhile, official Israel commemorated the victims of the Hamas terror attack three years after the massacre. President Izchak Herzog lit a candle at his residence in Jerusalem at 6:29 a.m. local time in memory of the dead and injured. It was the exact time on October 7, 2023 of the attack in which around 1200 people were killed. "Three years since that terrible morning, three years of pain, loss and memory that will not be erased," he wrote on the X platform.

The Gaza Strip was bombed to rubble in response to the Hamas attack.

Mourners also gathered at the Nova music festival site near Kibbutz Reim to remember their relatives and friends who were killed. Around 50,000 people were expected at the central memorial service in the evening in a park in Tel Aviv.

But not all Israelis want to simply ignore the serious failures of those in power to protect the population, not even on this day of remembrance. Demonstrators in several cities called for a state commission of inquiry into the attack. The day of remembrance also falls in the hot phase of the election campaign: in three weeks, the Israelis will elect a parliament for the first time since the massacre.

The demonstrators criticized the fact that there has so far been no comprehensive investigation by the government into the question of how the traumatic attack could have happened and what mistakes were made in the security apparatus and politics. According to media reports, demonstrators gathered in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence and the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem. According to the Times of Israel newspaper, protesters also briefly blocked the city highway near Tel Aviv.

In September, the critical Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz published a long investigative investigation, according to which Prime Minister Netanyahu had received indications of an impending attack by Hamas well before October 7th, but ignored them.

For the Palestinians, October 7, 2023 made the situation even worse. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,120 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks in the occupied West Bank. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has also increased significantly.

Most importantly, the Gaza Strip was bombed to rubble in response to the Hamas attack. The Israeli armed forces say they have attacked around 100,000 targets in the region, including 65,000 in the Gaza Strip, 28,000 in Lebanon and Syria and 4,500 in Iran, Israeli radio reported, citing the military. 970 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the line of duty in the past three years. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Monday that 4,000 of the 6,000 terrorists had been killed so far. The military was ordered to pursue and kill the remaining 2,000. So peace is not in sight.

Germany commemorated October 7th in its own way. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) emphasized support for Israel. »Germany stands firmly on Israel’s side. Our Israeli friends can count on our commitment to ensure that such a crime never occurs again," said the Chancellor, according to a statement. "We stand up for the security and existence of Israel - that is the lesson from the Shoah and part of German identity."

The European Union also expressed similar views. "The EU stands by all those whose lives were forever changed by that day," wrote EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Platform With agencies

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