Israel marked a national day of commemoration on Thursday for the victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, and for those who died in the ensuing war, almost a week after a cease-fire in Gaza was declared.
Two central state ceremonies were held on Thursday, which was two years after the 2023 attack, according to the Jewish calendar. They took place at the national cemetery, Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem, and were dedicated to those who have been killed over the course of the war, with one ceremony for soldiers and security personnel, and another for civilians.
“Even if this isn’t the end,” said Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, speaking onstage at the ceremony for the soldiers, and referring to the war, “we have hope we are nearing it, with throats choked with tears and grief, intertwined with moments of relief.”
Since the cease-fire, Hamas has released the 20 remaining living hostages who had been held in Gaza, and Israel has freed nearly 2,000 Palestinians from imprisonment. Among those freed were 250 Palestinians convicted of terrorism offenses or acts of violence against Israelis and roughly 1,700 more who were detained in Gaza during the war and held in Israel without charge.
On Thursday, Israel said it had identified the bodies of two more people that Hamas handed back on Wednesday. Israel said the two had been killed in the October 2023 attack and taken into Gaza. Last week’s truce agreement called for the immediate handover of all remaining bodies in Gaza, though both sides acknowledged that some could be difficult to locate and might take more time to retrieve because of the destruction across the enclave.
The Palestinian militant group has so far handed over at least nine bodies that Israel has identified, while the bodies of 19 more Israelis remain in Gaza, according to a spokesman for the prime minister’s office.
Israel has returned at least 90 bodies of Palestinians to Gaza, according to statements by the International Red Cross. The Israeli military has withdrawn some of its forces to an agreed-upon line inside Gaza, and some Gazans have begun returning to their homes — or to where the homes once stood.
At the state ceremony in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel would achieve all of its war aims. He has previously said those aims include disarming Hamas, which has been a red line for the group and remains an unresolved issue in negotiations to end the war.
Mr. Netanyahu added that Israel had struck its enemies with “hammer blows,” vowing that “anyone who raises their hand against us will pay a heavy price for their aggression.”
About 1,200 people were killed on Oct. 7, including Israeli civilians and security personnel, and about 250 were taken hostage. In the subsequent war in Gaza, at least 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Over 460 Israelis have been killed in the war since it started, according to Israel’s National Security Council.
Several communities in southern Israel, scarred by the Hamas-led attack in 2023, have been holding their own ceremonies.
Yael Felus, 52, a resident of Kfar Aza, one of the communities overrun by gunmen that Oct. 7, said that members of her kibbutz had gathered on Wednesday night for an event that was about processing the tragic events of that day. She said she spent 22 hours hiding in her home during the attack.
On Thursday morning, they gathered again at the kibbutz cemetery to remember the more than 60 people who were killed in Kfar Aza that day.
“I hope this is the end of the war,” said Ms. Felus, who, like many other residents of the kibbutz, has been displaced to another part of Israel for most of the past two years, while her village is being rebuilt and rehabilitated. “I only feel safe at home, and I hope to return there soon.”
Natan Odenheimer is a Times reporter in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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