‘An entire nation bows its head and mourns’: Israel marks memorial day for Oct. 7

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday opened the national day of remembrance for Oct. 7, 2023, by lowering the Israeli flag at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to half-mast at 6:29 a.m.—the exact minute the attack began.

He said that the flag-lowering was “a sign of remembrance and honor for the murdered and the fallen in the terror attack of Oct. 7 and the ‘Swords of Iron’ War,” adding in an X post that Israel remembers “the women, the men, the children, the infants, the elderly, the civilians and the soldiers who were murdered and fell in the terror attack and war.

“On this day, we also salute everyone who was wounded in body and soul and bear the wounds of Oct. 7 and the war—even in these days,” his statement concluded.

Flags at the Knesset were also lowered to half-staff at 6:29 a.m. in a ceremony attended by senior parliamentary leadership, who laid wreaths at the plaza’s monuments commemorating fallen soldiers and victims of hostile acts.

The National Remembrance Day for the October 7 Disaster and Swords of Iron War is observed annually on the Hebrew date of Tishrei 24 (shifting to the 25th if it falls on Shabbat), which corresponds this year to Monday, Oct. 5, marking three years since the 2023 attacks.

The day is dedicated to mourning those murdered in the massacres and slain during the Swords of Iron war, alongside honoring those injured in body and soul.

Later on Monday, Herzog addressed state memorial ceremonies on Mount Herzl honoring fallen soldiers and terror victims, and was set to host “Salon Otef” at the President’s Residence, focusing on the story of Omri and Lishay Miran. Miran was freed and reunited with his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, and their two daughters in October 2025 after enduring more than two years in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu attends Mount Herzl state ceremony

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday morning attended a state memorial service on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, in the Great Leaders of the Nation section honoring members of the Israel Defense Forces and security services who died during the War of Redemption.

Netanyahu said that three years after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Israel was “stronger than ever,” adding that “even now, the terrible hours of the Simchat Torah massacre are seared into us.

“Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time,” he warned. “Day by day, we are settling accounts with these despicable murderers.”

He vowed that there would be no Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu is also set to participate in a separate state ceremony on Mount Herzl dedicated to the victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and honoring acts of heroism.

Smotrich: ‘We remember and will not forget’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Israel must remember the Oct. 7 massacre amid attempts to distort its history and reality “out of overt antisemitism.

“No more containment, no more surrender,” Smotrich wrote. “Rather, a clear declaration that this is our land, and we will continue to fight and struggle for it, because we have no other land.” He said Israel had acted decisively against its enemies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Judea and Samaria, Syria and Yemen since the Hamas-led assault.

Smotrich offered condolences to bereaved families and called for support for the wounded, former hostages and those still struggling to rebuild their lives.

“May the memory of all those murdered and fallen in the Simchat Torah massacre and the War of Revival be blessed and preserved in our hearts forever,” the minister concluded.

IDF chief: ‘An entire nation bows its head and mourns’

The IDF’s General Staff Forum held a memorial ceremony and a minute of silence at 6:29 a.m. on Monday at the Zikim base near the Gaza border, marking three years since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

“Today, three years later, an entire nation bows its head and mourns,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a military order issued on the occasion of Israel’s national memorial day for the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

According to the Law for the Remembrance of the Massacre and Commemorating the Heroism on the 22nd of Tishrei, Simchat Torah—October 7, the annual commemoration is held two days after Simchat Torah. The cross-border assault, in which Gazan terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, wounded thousands and kidnapped 251, took place on that holiday in 2023.

“The IDF failed in its most important mission to protect the civilians of the State of Israel,” Zamir wrote on Monday.

“In the wheat fields, in the orchards, in the homes of the kibbutzim, and in the cities of the western Negev, in the places where roots of life and settlement had been planted, the enemy sowed fire, destruction, and ruin. Roads that connected communities became combat routes. Our fields became battlefields, and family homes became sites of massacre and abduction,” the military chief said.

He stressed the IDF’s duty “to investigate and ensure that the lessons are implemented, so that we may be more worthy of the trust the people have placed in us.”

Zamir also praised the conscripts, reservists and civilian employees who answered the call on Oct. 7. Since that day, he said, the IDF has “fought in arenas near and far, defended communities and borders, struck our enemies and dismantled capabilities that threatened Israeli civilians.”

“We rescued and returned hostages, changed, and developed new ways to confront threats,” the chief of staff continued.

“This is the spirit of victory, the spirit our enemies will never be able to break,” he added.

IDF troops mark anniversary across fronts

IDF soldiers held memorial ceremonies “across all sectors” at 6:29 a.m. on Monday.

Troops honored the memory of those killed, and Israeli flags at military sites were lowered to half-staff, the IDF said.

Soldiers are currently deployed to security zones in the Gaza Strip, Southern Lebanon and southern Syria. Israel’s war, which began with the Hamas-led cross-border assault, subsequently expanded to multiple fronts, including Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran.

Israel marks 1,318 slain security personnel since Oct. 7

Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that 1,318 members of Israel’s security forces have been added to the nation’s official roll of slain personnel since Oct. 7, 2023.

The total includes Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Israel Police officers, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) personnel, Israel Prison Service and Fire and Rescue Authority members, civilian security coordinators and members of civilian rapid-response squads.

More than 7,150 people have joined Israel’s bereaved-family community during that period, including 2,143 parents, 355 widows, 880 orphans and 3,772 siblings, according to the ministry.

Separately, the National Insurance Institute said 1,029 civilians have been killed in terrorist attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, excluding security personnel and members of local rapid-response squads. The civilian toll includes 668 men, 361 women, 88 foreign nationals, and 63 children under age 18.

The institute said it has been treating 87,286 additional victims of hostile acts since Oct. 7, including 24 amputees. Of 43,004 civilians who filed hostile-act disability claims, 40,542 have had a disability determined: 34,955 for psychological injury, 3,208 for physical injury and 2,379 for combined physical and psychological injuries. The remaining claims are still before medical committees.

Of the civilians killed, 778 were murdered on Oct. 7 itself, including 70 foreign nationals. Another 251 were killed during the subsequent war period, including 18 foreign nationals.

Huckabee: US stands ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with Israel on Oct. 7 anniversary

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the United States stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Israel as it marks the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Huckabee described the assault, which he noted was carried out by “Iran-backed Hamas” on Simchat Torah and Shabbat, as the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. He said Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people, including dozens of Americans, and abducted 250 others into Gaza.

Comparing the assault to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Huckabee said Israel and the United States shared “Judeo-Christian values” and faced “the same terrorist enemies that seek to destroy us,” adding that “they will not prevail.

“The Jewish people have faced a significant surge in antisemitism,” Huckabee said. “This irrational Jew-hatred targets not only Jews around the world but also obsessively slanders the one and only Jewish state with libelous and baseless accusations.

“We strongly stand with Israel and the Jewish people,” he continued. “We pray for the victims, their families and the survivors. May their memories be a blessing.”