Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On Wednesday, Israelis marked the third anniversary, the first with all hostages returned, while the Israel Defense Forces reported that more than 31,500 rockets, missiles and drones had been launched at Israel from multiple fronts since the war began.
Families gathered at intersections, bomb shelters and the site of the Nova music festival in southern Israel, where militants overran a gathering. The government held official memorial services on Oct. 5, closer to the Hebrew-calendar anniversary. An Israeli election was due at the end of the month, amid divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war and his reluctance to order an official inquiry into the failures of Oct. 7.
The Attack and the Hostages
Elkana Bohbot, 37, marked his first Oct. 7 anniversary in Israel after his release from captivity last year. He said he spent most of his captivity 50 meters (165 feet) underground, in a dark, damp tunnel and a small cell with other hostages. He got very little food, bathed only every few weeks and appeared in several propaganda videos his captors made.
Bohbot has undergone physical and emotional rehabilitation since his release. His wife, Rivka, gave birth to a daughter in August, fulfilling a promise he made in the tunnels to give his 5-year-old son, Reem, a sibling. “So this child is the message for you that we were here, and we will always be here forever,” Bohbot told The Associated Press.
The Hamas-led invasion targeted communities, an outdoor rave and military bases. It killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people to Gaza. Israel said its campaign aimed to topple Hamas's government in Gaza, destroy the group and free the hostages.
Fire From Multiple Fronts
The IDF's tally included 10,200 projectiles from Gaza, at least 5,000 of them on Oct. 7 alone; 20,000 from Lebanon; around 50 from Syria; 90 from Yemen; and 1,200 from Iran. The military didn't detail how many drones and missiles came from Iraq. Its totals excluded projectiles officials said misfired or failed to reach their targets.
The military said it had struck approximately 100,000 targets: 65,000 in Gaza, 28,000 in Lebanon and Syria, 4,500 in Iran and 80 in Yemen. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese group, began firing on Israel the day after the Hamas-led assault, saying it was acting in support of Gaza. The fighting later escalated into all-out war. Iran's proxies in Yemen and Iraq also attacked Israel.
The IDF said it had killed more than 24,000 combatants in Gaza and an estimated 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Oct. 7 assault. It said Hamas “continues attempts to rebuild and rearm,” though the military assessed that the group was no longer the military and governing organization it had been before the attack. Talks on Hamas disarmament and reconstruction had made only limited progress.
Casualties and Security Measures
More than 74,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish civilians from militants and said around half those killed were women and children. U.N. agencies and independent experts consider its figures generally reliable. The IDF said it believed the ministry's overall count was largely accurate and estimated that two to three civilians were killed for each dead militant.
The IDF said its troops had arrested more than 45,000 wanted Palestinians for questioning in the West Bank, including people it said were terrorists planning imminent attacks. The military also reported that troops seized more than 3,800 weapons and NIS 46 million ($15.1 million) in cash intended for terrorism.
The IDF reported that 970 soldiers, reservists and local security officers had been killed and 6,424 wounded since Oct. 7. At a military conference on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “One of our greatest lessons from October 7 is the need to expand the security margin.” He said the army was concluding its investigations and needed to “learn, draw lessons, implement them, and move forward.”