Israel marked the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Wednesday with ceremonies, renewed strikes on Gaza and military operations in the West Bank targeting suspects accused of terrorism and incitement. The IDF and Border Police said they launched several overnight operations to arrest and question dozens of suspects. The military gave no further details about arrests or the suspects.
At the Nova music festival site in Re’im, relatives of victims observed a minute of silence at 6:29 a.m., the time the attack began. More than 360 people died at the festival. An AFP tally put the attack’s death toll at 1,221, with another 251 people abducted and taken to Gaza, including 44 bodies.
The Attack and Its Aftermath
Katia Zohar, whose 23-year-old daughter Bar died at Nova, said, “That was the minute that changed our lives forever.” Zohar recalled that her daughter first called asking her to come get her because missiles were in the air, then called again from the road, screaming that someone was shooting at her. “I remember everything,” Zohar said.
Anna Davitashvili, 53, honored her eldest son, Shaun, who died at age 25 alongside his friends at Nova, by playing the last techno track partygoers danced to during the attack. “I miss him,” she said. Bezalel Slavin, 74, lost his daughter and now helps his son-in-law, a survivor, raise their three children. “Life must go on, what else can we do?” he said.
Hamas called Oct. 7 “a glorious day in the history of our people.” The group, weakened by the war, still controls parts of the Gaza Strip. Israel launched a major offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the attack.
The territory’s Health Ministry, which Hamas controls, says more than 74,200 people have died; the United Nations considers its figures reliable. Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli airstrikes killed three people on Wednesday, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remained in tents or temporary shelters. AFP journalists in Re’im, near the Gaza border, heard loud explosions coming from Gaza.
Military Operations and Defense Changes
A Wednesday IDF report said the military had attacked nearly 100,000 targets since Oct. 7, 2023: around 65,000 in Gaza, 28,000 in Lebanon and Syria, 4,500 in Iran and 80 in Yemen. The report listed ballistic missile launches attributed to those countries and territories: 50 from Syria, 1,200 from Iran, 20,000 from Lebanon, 10,200 from Gaza and 90 from Yemen.
The report included a graphic naming high-ranking officials the IDF killed, including Hezbollah’s former Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and former head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council Hashem Safieddine; fourth chairman of Hamas’ political bureau Yahya Sinwar; sixth commander of Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades Mohammed Deif; IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Ali Hajizadeh; and IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami.
The IDF said its Southern Command established about 40 new outposts. The Intelligence Division established a data division to preserve and extract intelligence information, while the Air Force developed dedicated commands and decentralized authorities on the ground for sudden scenarios. Central Command established the 96th “Gilead” Division on the eastern border and the Dead Sea Air Command for regional defense.
Security, Losses and Political Scrutiny
The military report said 970 soldiers had died since the start of the war, more than 70% of wounded soldiers had returned to service, and reserves had increased by about 36%. It listed nine new divisions established over the past three years, including the Hashomer Brigade, the David Brigades and Division 38.
Commemorations took place amid renewed calls for an independent commission of inquiry into the security failures surrounding the attack. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to prevent it, attended the Nova commemoration. “It was a colossal failure of the State of Israel,” Bennett said.
At 6:29 a.m., the left-wing opposition Democrats party launched a website broadcasting Israeli news channels’ coverage as it aired on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023. Party leader Yair Golan wrote on X: “We must not allow any entity to reshape our memory. The images of civilians who stood up and acted when the state did not respond.” Parliamentary elections are scheduled for Oct. 27. Bruno Retailleau, a candidate for the French presidential election, attended the Nova site and said Hamas had “disfigured” the Palestinian cause with the attack.