Israel marks the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Tuesday as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in the Gaza Strip under a U.S.-proposed peace plan.
Two years ago to the day, at the close of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas-led militants launched a massive assault on Israel, making it the deadliest day in the country's history.
Palestinian fighters breached the Gaza-Israel border, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.
The attack killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, of whom 47 remain captive, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Memorial events were scheduled in Israel on Tuesday to mark the anniversary.
Dozens of relatives and friends of those killed at the Nova music festival lit candles and held a minute's silence at the site of the attack in southern Israel, where militants killed more than 370 people and seized dozens of hostages.
Orit Baron, whose daughter Yuval was killed at the festival with her fiance Moshe Shuva, said the day was a "black" date for her family.
"Now it's two years. And I'm here to be with her, because this is the last time that she was alive," the 57-year-old mother said at the site of the attack, adding she felt "that right now she's with me here."
Another ceremony was due in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, where weekly rallies have kept up calls for the captives' release.
A state-organized commemoration is planned for Oct. 16 after the ongoing Sukkot holidays.
'Lost everything'
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza by air, land and sea has killed at least 67,160 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that over half of the dead are women and children.
Entire neighborhoods have been flattened, with homes, hospitals, schools and water networks in ruins.
Hundreds of thousands of homeless Gazans now shelter in overcrowded camps and open areas with little access to food, water or sanitation.
"We have lost everything in this war — our homes, family members, friends, neighbors," said Hanan Mohammed, 36, who is displaced from her home in Jabalia. "I can't wait for a ceasefire to be announced and for this endless bloodshed and death to stop. ... There is nothing left but destruction."
After two years of war, 72% of the Israeli public said they were dissatisfied with the government's handling of the war, according to a recent survey by the Institute for National Security Studies.
Herculean task
Israel has expanded its military reach over the course of the war, striking targets in five countries in the region, including Iran, and killing several senior Hamas figures and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel and Hamas now face mounting international pressure to end the war, with a U.N. probe last month accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and rights groups accusing Hamas of war crimes in the Oct. 7 attack. Both sides reject the allegations.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point plan calling for a ceasefire, a release of all the hostages, Hamas's disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Indirect talks began Monday in Egypt's resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with mediators shuttling between delegations under tight security.
Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence, said the discussions were focused on "preparing ground conditions" for a hostage-prisoner exchange.
A Palestinian source close to Hamas negotiators said the talks, which opened on the eve of the Oct. 7 anniversary, may last for several days.
Trump has urged negotiators to "move fast" to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it detected a projectile fired from Gaza, with no injuries reported.
Trump told Newsmax TV that "I think we're very, very close to having a deal. ... I think there's a lot of goodwill being shown now. It's pretty amazing actually."
Although both sides have welcomed Trump's proposal, reaching an agreement on its details is expected to be a Herculean task.
Two truces earlier in the war enabled the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, though they did not envisage a more permanent ceasefire or the disarmament of Hamas.
Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has warned that if these negotiations fail, the military will "return to fighting" in Gaza.
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