by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Rocket sirens sounded in southern Israel on Tuesday after fire from Gaza as Israelis began to mark the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The massacre in southern Israel by Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by Israel’s government and most of its allies, was the deadliest single attack in the Jewish nation’s history and was called the “worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust,” also known as the Shoah.
At the site of the Nova music festival, where more than 370 people were killed, families observed a minute of silence at 6:29 a.m., the exact time the assault began.
“We live with the trauma every day, but we also stand for life,” a relative of a Nova festival victim told reporters at the site.
Memorial events were also held in devastated kibbutzim such as Be’eri and Kfar Aza, according to eyewitnesses and local media.
THOUSANDS GATHER
In Tel Aviv, thousands rallied to demand the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Posters with the faces of abducted Israelis remain visible at bus stops and in public squares across the country.
However, rocket sirens sounded in southern Israel on Tuesday after fire from Gaza, though no casualties were reported.
The confrontation came as negotiations, mediated by Egypt, continued between Israel and Hamas over a potential ceasefire and prisoner exchange.
The October 7 atrocity, also referred to as “Black Sabbath,” will be observed during Israel’s official national ceremony of remembrance scheduled for October 16 at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, following the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, organizers said
As the mourning continues, homes destroyed in 2023 remain charred and abandoned, while some communities have begun rebuilding, still hopeful that peace will emerge one day.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday that the momentum toward a Ukraine peace agreement—sparked after President Vladimir Putin’s August summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska—has “largely been exhausted,” blaming European allies of Kyiv for obstructing diplomatic progress.
Thousands of churches across the United Kingdom may close within the next five years as financial hardship, maintenance costs, and declining attendance continue to erode the viability of many congregations, according to a new nationwide survey.
The U.S. federal government ended fiscal year 2025 with a $1.8 trillion budget deficit, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)–a figure only marginally smaller than last year’s record shortfall, even as tariff revenue surged under President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
The “brutal killing of Shamron Masih,” a mentally disabled Christian man in the Motra area of Pakistan’s Sialkot district, has sparked “widespread outrage across Pakistan’s Christian community,” Christian human rights investigators said Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan, signaling the possible end of the two-year-long war in Gaza that began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
During a round table discussion with independent journalists at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump said his administration would designate Antifa a foreign terror organization.
Democratic U.S. Senators voted against opening the federal government for a sixth time Wednesday afternoon, dimming hopes that Congress will reach a funding deal in time for thousands of federal workers to receive their next paychecks.