Three years ago, Hamas terrorists who had assembled against Israel invaded that Middle East democracy, slaughtering some 1,200 innocent civilians, often burning whole families alive, in what Franklin Graham, chief of the worldwide Christian ministry Samaritan’s Purse, calls “unimaginable evil.”
On the anniversary of that terrorism, in which several hundred Israelis also were kidnapped, some of whom were killed by Hamas terrorists later, Graham is calling for a remembrance of that evil.
“May we never forget what Hamas did to Israel on this day three years ago. The murders, the torture, the rape, the rampage that took 1,200 lives as they swept in on unsuspecting people who just wanted to live in peace,” he wrote on social media.
“I was there very shortly after and walked through the kibbutzes and spoke with survivors. It was unimaginable evil. And Hamas’ decision to launch this attack led to the destruction of most of Gaza and the suffering of many more people. Pray for the ‘peace of Jerusalem’ (Psalm 122:6), as the Word of God tells us.”
Israelis marked the anniversary with memorials in homes, roadsides, and at the Nova music festival where many victims were slain.
Three years ago, a sunrise party turned into the deadliest day in Israel’s history. In the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023, thousands were still gathered at the Nova music festival in southern Israel when rockets began streaking overhead and the music stopped. Hamas terrorists breached the border by land and air, with some crossing on motorized paragliders, as festivalgoers ran, hid in fields, and tried to escape by car. The attack spread to communities near the Gaza border, where terrorists stormed homes, killed families, and took men, women, and children hostage. By the end of the day, roughly 1,200 people had been killed and 251 abducted into Gaza, marking the deadliest single-day attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Hear survivors’ testimonies on @foxnation : https://t.co/j2wOnwSKmy
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 7, 2026
NEW: Families and survivors embrace at the site of the Nova festival near Reim, gathering to commemorate the victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Festivalgoers were among those targeted as militants launched air and ground attacks on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Today, as families and mourners visit the memorial, comes three years after the attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 7, 2026
Three years later, Israel stops to remember the 1,200 lives lost on Oct. 7. President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog lit a memorial candle at exactly 6:29 a.m., the moment the Hamas-led attack began three years ago. Across southern Israel, families gather at communities, bomb shelters and the Nova music festival site to honor those killed. The attack also saw 251 people taken hostage into Gaza. This year’s anniversary marks a significant first: all of the hostages are now home.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 7, 2026
At today’s commemoration of the Oct 7 attacks held by the Israeli Mission to the UN, we heard from surviving hostages stories of resilience and hope. This brutal attack backfired on the radical terrorists responsible for it. Today, Israelis and Arabs are fighting side by side and the Abraham Accords are not only still strong, they are growing.
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) October 6, 2026
The terror attack triggered a military response from Israel, which worked to eliminate the threat its civilians faced from the terror in Gaza.
Reports charge that three years have gone by, and now some 80% of structures in Gaza are believed to have been damaged. Those include schools and hospitals, from which terrorists delivered their attacks.
The New York Post posted a report on the “tunnel that Hamas terrorists used to launch their devastating Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Kibbutz Nahal Oz – killing more than 60 soldiers and 15 civilians in one of the bloodiest clashes of the attack.”
The report explained, “And it was this same tunnel — a mile and a half long ‘a city under a city’ in the Gaza Strip — that the terrorists used to escape and hide the 18 hostages they took from the Kibbutz.”
An IDF commander told reporters there, “It is hard to imagine, but it [the tunnel] is all connected and goes back to [Gaza City].”
Insider were barracks, bathrooms, rooms with air conditioning, a working water system and sleeping quarters that could accommodate terrorist for months.
Fox News reported on the ramifications that still are going on, including a legal battle between the family of a terror attack victim and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Israeli civil rights attorney and president of the Shurat HaDin Law Center, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, told Fox News Digital that she filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Jerusalem on behalf of the family of 21-year-old Yonatan Samerano, who was murdered outside of Kibbutz Be’eri after fleeing the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Samerano’s body was returned to his family after 625 days in captivity, during the final stage of hostage releases, Darshan-Leitner said,” according to the report.
The report explained after Samerano was shot to death by terrorists, his body was picked up by UNRWA workers, placed in an UNRWA vehicle and kidnapped to Gaza.
“Although the kidnapping was by UNRWA’s workers, UNRWA never revealed the place of the body, never cooperated with Israeli authorities to tell them where Yonatan Samerano was held and never admitted that it was done by its workers. And therefore we decided to sue UNRWA on behalf of the family,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer is charging that UNRWA “was aiding and abetting terror organizations and participating in acts of terrorism,” so it no longer can claim the immunity provided generally to United Nations activities.
In fact, evidence now shows some activists employed by U.N. operations actually participated in the terror.
Israeli lawmakers, in fact, have stripped UNRWA of its diplomatic immunity, allowing their government to confiscate UNRWA properties in East Jerusalem.
The Boston Herald reported that there now is a “fragile ceasefire” between Isreal and the terrorists of Hamas.
But it reported, “Three years on, a visit to the communities attacked that day made clear: It’s too soon for many residents to see the Palestinians next door as anything other than a threat.”
The report described the scene: “The highway running parallel to Gaza, where fighters gunned down people trying to flee, is dotted with memorials. Victims’ smashed and bullet-pocked cars are assembled elsewhere, rusting and piled a half-dozen high. Portraits of young female military spotters, whose warnings about a potential attack were disregarded, mark their deaths that day.”
The report documented how resident Deganit Bar Hay “said she still can’t barbecue because the smell of burnt flesh — ‘the smell of hell’ — is a trigger.”
Thousands of Gaza residents also were killed during the military response to the attack.
“We are post-traumatic, all of us,” Ziporah Livneh, outside a cafe catering to tour groups and soldiers a short drive from Gaza, told the publication.
