Summary

  • Our live coverage has ended - read the story here

  • Israelis are marking three years since the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage

  • Vigils have been held across Israel and the world, including a national memorial in Tel Aviv

  • There, the mother of 19-year-old Noa Marciano, who was taken hostage and died in Gaza, said: "I will continue loving you and waiting for you forever"

  • An event was also held at the site of the Nova music festival, where 378 people were killed and 44 taken hostage

  • Commemorations in Israel began with a nationwide minute's silence at 06:29 local time (04:29 BST), to mark the time the attacks started

  • In response to the 7 October attacks, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza in which more than 74,200 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry

  • Nearly a year since the ceasefire, Gaza's civilians are living amid rubble and dust with the constant sound of Israeli drones, our correspondent writes

Live Reporting

Edited by Angus Thompson and Imogen James, with reporting from Lucy Williamson and Yolande Knell in southern Israel

  1. 'My daughter was shot in the head and died instantly'

    Yolande Knell
    Middle East correspondent, at the Nova Festival site near Re'im, southern Israel

    Picture of Adi Rivka Meisel

    "What happened here was not human," says Ahuva Yavin Mayze as she sweeps the stones around the memorial for her 21-year-old daughter, Adi.

    We are standing on what was the dancefloor at the Nova Festival site three years ago. She tells me that bereaved families, survivors and former hostages taken from here - Israel’s single deadliest site on its deadliest ever day - are still suffering deep trauma.

    "I’m a mother, I just know that my daughter, she was shot in the head and died instantly," Ahuva says. "But many parents who know what happened to their beloved ones, they cannot recover.

    "The stories from here are dystopic, unimaginable."

    During the 7 October attacks, heavily armed Hamas gunmen came across this dance party after breaking across the Gaza border.

    Witnesses have described how festival-goers were shot, killed, raped and tortured. Many bodies were found mutilated.

    A total of 378 people were killed here, mostly young Israelis. Forty-four were kidnapped, of whom 25 were brought back from Gaza alive.

    Pictures of victims at the memorial site at Re'im

  2. 'We stand with you,' Burnham tells British Jews

    Andy Burnham wearing a suit and glasses, he has short brown hair.Bloomberg via Getty Images

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has paid tribute to "those who were senselessly killed by Hamas terrorists" on 7 October.

    "The impact of the attacks has been felt not just in Israel, but in Jewish communities across the world who still bear the burden of the tragic events that day," he says in a social media post.

    He says that a "disturbing rise in antisemitic behaviour in the UK" has been observed in the years since the attacks.

    "I want Britain’s Jewish community to hear this from me directly. We stand with you. Abuse and violence against you, in any form, will not be tolerated," he says.

    "An attack on Jewish people in Britain is an attack on all of us. Antisemitism has no place in this country, and we will do everything we can to stamp it out."

  3. Could displaced Palestinians eventually be forced from Gaza altogether?

    Rushdi Abualouf
    Gaza correspondent

    For ordinary Palestinians, the question of whether they can remain in Gaza is no longer an abstract political question.

    Families who have already been displaced several times during the war increasingly ask where they could go next, and whether another displacement might eventually take them outside Gaza altogether.

    Mohammed Emad al-Din, 38, a father of two who works as a barber in Gaza City, says he has been displaced five times since 7 October.

    His home was destroyed and his barber shop was partially damaged. He tells the BBC the fear of being forced out of Gaza now follows him even into his dreams.

    “I don’t believe Israel caused all this destruction for nothing,” he says. “They have turned Gaza into a place that is almost impossible to live in, and I fear that we will eventually end up outside the place where we were born.”

    His fear is echoed in conversations across Gaza, where repeated displacement and the destruction of homes and livelihoods have left many people uncertain not only about where they will live next month, but whether they will ultimately be able to remain in the territory at all.

    The situation in Gaza three years on from 7 October attack

  4. Art installation commemorating 7 October victims on Tel Aviv beach

    An art installation commemorating the victims of the 7 October attacks can be seen on a beach in Tel Aviv, Israel.

    It features 1,200 human figures, referring to those killed on the day, near large Hebrew letters that spell "Total Failure".

    It is unclear who organised the installation. As we reported earlier, there have been several anti-government protests taking place across the capital to mark today's anniversary.

    A drone shot shows an art installation on a beach in Tel Aviv. It features rows of black fabric. with white pictures of bodies painted on them, which have been placed in parallel lines along the beach. Below the drawings, there are more pieces of fabric which spell out words in HebrewEPA/Shutterstock
    Another drone shot shows the art installation from a different angle, looking along the stretch of the beach, with the sea on the left and high rise buildings to the rightEPA/Shutterstock
    Another drone shot shows a closer look at the pieces of black fabric, with drawings of bodies painted on them in white. There are several rows of the drawings on each piece of fabric, which have been laid side by sideEPA/Shutterstock

  5. Israel is yet to hold an independent inquiry into 7 October attacks

    Lucy Williamson
    Middle East correspondent, reporting from kibbutz Kfar Aza

    Israelis attend a memorial ceremony for Kfar Aza, among the hardest hit in the deadly Hamas-led October 7 attackReuters

    Crowds filed into the small cemetery at Kfar Aza, shoulders slung with rifles, or television cameras, or loaded with the weight of residents’ memories here.

    In plastic chairs, under an awning shielding mourners from the sun, Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant sat with kibbutz residents and listened as the names of all those killed here were read aloud, one by one.

    Many senior defence and security officials have resigned or been fired since the attacks took place. But three years after Israel’s worst security failure, there has not been any independent state inquiry into what went wrong.

    Former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant speaks to residents who are paying tribute at kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel

    Yoav Gallant, who served as Israeli defence minister between 2022 and 2024, at kibbutz Kfar Aza

  6. Anti-government protesters dye fountain red in Tel Aviv

    A drone view of the water of the fountain at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv stained red to symbolise bloodReuters

    The water of the fountain at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv was stained red to symbolise blood

    Anti-government protesters have dyed the fountain in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square red to mark the anniversary of 7 October attacks.

    The fountain has been used as a memorial site for victims of the attacks, with pictures, flowers and messages laid around the basin wall.

    Protesters also blocked one of the main highways in Tel Aviv to hold a moment of silence for those killed on 7 October earlier this morning.

    They held banners that read "the people will remember their sons and daughters" along with others that say "a complete failure" and "guilty" next to an image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Anti-government groups in Israel, such as the October Council and the Kumu Movement, have been demanding a public inquiry into the 7 October attacks.

    Anti-government protesters stand for a moment of silence for the victims of the Hamas-led 07 October attacksEPA

  7. Despite the ceasefire, violence continues in Gaza

    A man steps through rubble in the aftermath of an airstrike in Gaza CityNurPhoto via Getty Images

    The aftermath of an Israeli strike that hit an apartment building in Gaza City on 3 October

    It's approaching a year since a ceasefire was declared in Gaza.

    Hamas and Israel agreed to halt the war after accepting US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan. It included a suspension of "all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment".

    Since it was declared, Israeli strikes have continued, and the UN has warned of dire living conditions.

    More than 1,460 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire was declared, according to latest figures from the territory's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

    The Israeli military has said it operates in "a precise manner to remove threats and protect its troops and Israeli civilians, in accordance with the agreement".

    Last month, the Israeli military said that five troops had been killed in combat since the ceasefire began, and one contractor had died in an "operational accident".

  8. What happened on 7 October?

    The burnt exterior of a house with a charred rocking chair and table, an Israeli flag laid overGetty Images

    A torched house at Kibbutz Nir Oz photographed in December 2023, two months after the Hamas-led attack

    Shortly after sunrise on 7 October 2023, the Hamas-led attack on Israel began.

    It started with a barrage of rockets fired into the country.

    As thousands of rockets flew, an estimated 6,000 Hamas-led militants breached the border into Israel in dozens of places, entering in cars, on motorbikes or in some cases by paraglider.

    They attacked military bases and stormed through multiple kibbutzim - small villages - near the border, burning homes and killing civilians. In one kibbutz, Nir Oz, 41 people were killed and 76 kidnapped out of its 400-strong community

    The attackers also targeted a music festival in the Negev desert. They gunned down partygoers at Nova festival, killing 378 people and kidnapping 44 more, according to an IDF tally.

    In total, around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken as hostages, making it the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

    Israel responded to the 7 October attacks by launching a military offensive in Gaza, triggering a war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

    Map of southern Israel and the Gaza Strip showing reported Hamas movements during the October 2023 attack. Blue triangles mark locations where Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel along the border, while red squares indicate places where fighters were later seen inside Israel. Markers are concentrated near Check Point Erez, Sderot, the Nahal Oz military base and the Nova music festival, with additional sightings extending south and east toward Ofakim and north toward Ashkelon. An inset map locates the area in the eastern Mediterranean. Scale shows 5 km (2 miles). Source: BBC

  9. Hundreds gather for vigil at Bondi in Sydney

    Members of the public attend a ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks against IsraelEPA

    Those in attendance held a minute's silence at 06:29 local time

    Hundreds of people gathered at dawn in Sydney, Australia, to mark the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

    The event at Bondi on Wednesday morning included a minute’s silence at 06:29am local time (20:29 BST Tuesday), to mark the exact time of the Hamas-led assault in Israel.

    Several members of the public draped themselves in Israeli flags as they gathered at Bondi Pavilion to commemorate the lives lost three years ago.

    Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman told the crowd that behind every person killed on October 7 was "a face and a family”, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

    He also said "there is a direct line between the shooting at Nova [the music festival targeted by Hamas] and the shooting at Bondi".

    On 14 December 2025, 15 people were killed during an antisemitic attack on a Hanukah celebration at Bondi, Sydney.

    Three people stand in a line wearing traditional Jewish kippahs, with one person draped in an Israeli flag as the other person comforts them with a hand to their shoulder.Reuters

  10. Across Israel, people remember those killed on 7 October

    Israelis are comforting each other at memorial events across Israel, as they remember those killed in the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October.

    Three years ago, about 1,200 people were killed, and 251 taken hostage, in the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust.

    In Tel Aviv, drivers stopped their cars to observe the minute's silenceGetty Images

    In Tel Aviv, drivers stopped their cars to observe the minute's silence

    Two people embrace near a field of fake red poppies.Reuters

    Two people embrace near a memorial of red anemone sculptures. The flowers tend to bloom in nearby Re'im forest

    A person crying with their hands clenched near their mouth as another person wraps their arm around them.Reuters

    People react as they visit the site of the Nova music festival, where 378 people were killed

    Two people hug as sunlights hits them with others standing by near a tree with a memorial picture below itReuters

    Two people embrace as the sun rises over Kfar Aza

  11. Palestinians believe the threat of displacement from Gaza remains real

    Rushdi Abualouf
    Gaza correspondent

    Damaged buildings in Gaza City, as seen in 28 SeptemberReuters

    Damaged buildings in Gaza City, as seen on 28 September

    Three years after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, the overriding fear among many Palestinians I have spoken to is no longer simply about how the war will end.

    It is about whether Gaza’s Palestinians will ultimately be able to remain on their land.

    Over recent weeks, I have spoken to officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, as well as figures from across the Palestinian political spectrum.

    Despite their deep divisions, there is an unusual degree of agreement on one issue: they believe the threat of large-scale displacement from Gaza remains real.

    They also agree that Palestinians currently lack either the military or political means to prevent such a scenario if it were to unfold.

    That fear has become one of the defining features of Gaza three years after 7 October.

    The territory Palestinians inhabit today bears little resemblance to the Gaza that existed before the war. Large parts have been devastated.

    Much of the population remains displaced, many living in tents and makeshift shelters, while access to food, clean water and medical treatment remains severely restricted.

    Map of the Gaza Strip showing locations of buildings damaged between 5 October 2023 and 3 August 2026, marked as dense red clusters across the territory. The heaviest concentrations are around Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south-central area, with significant damage also visible in Rafah near the southern border and in Beit Hanoun in the northeast. Callout notes identify Gaza City as having suffered some of the most extensive destruction, Khan Younis as heavily devastated by air strikes and ground operations, Rafah as largely deserted after a ground offensive left much of the city in ruins, and Beit Hanoun as one of the first areas struck. The map includes Gaza’s borders, neighbouring Israel, the Mediterranean coast, and a scale bar. Source: Damage analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Conflict Ecology at Oregon State University

  12. Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza in wake of attack

    Tents as far as the eye can sea in a dusty landscape with the sea in the distanceGetty Images

    Displaced Palestinians’ tents are seen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip

    In the wake of the 7 October attack, Israel launched an extensive military offensive in Gaza, displacing more than a million people and killing tens of thousands.

    According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, at least 74,200 people have been in killed in Gaza by Israel since the action began.

    The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says humanitarian needs in Gaza remain "overwhelming", with many struggling to access water, food and medicine.

    An estimated 80% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the UN.

    More than 1.9 million people - about 90% of the territory's population - have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and 1.2 million of them are currently living in tents or makeshift shelters, it says.

    Last year, the world's leading association of genocide scholars declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has regularly denied its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as a means of self-defence.

    A ceasefire came into effect last October, though Israeli airstrikes and attacks on populated areas have continued.

  13. 'I get a message saying he loves me'

    Lucy Williamson
    Middle East correspondent, reporting from Kibbutz Kfar Aza

    The widow of the community’s civil defence deputy commander described to the gathering the moment he stopped answering her phone, shortly after 7am that day.

    “My stomach flips and I start to worry,” she said as her voice begins to break with tears.

    “At 7:21, I get a message saying he loves me,” she continued. “It’s the best leaving present he could give me.”

  14. Names of victims read aloud at Kfar Aza

    Lucy Williamson
    Middle East correspondent, reporting from Kibbutz Kfar Aza

    As the sky began to lighten over Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel attacked by Hamas, people trickled in twos and threes towards the armoury building.

    The cawing of crows cuts through the regular thud of artillery from Gaza, just a few kilometres away, and the buzz of a military drone overhead.

    In the gloom, a small crowd of residents gathered at the armoury where seven members of the kibbutz’s civil defence unit were attacked and killed by Hamas gunmen that morning.

    At 06:29 (04:29 BST), the flag was lowered to half-mast to the sound of a lone bugle, and their names read aloud.

    A young woman stood apart from the crowd, crying quietly.

    People gathered at a ceremony with some sitting in white plastic chairs and speakers next to an Israeli flagLucy Williamson/BBC

  15. Dawn breaks in Israel on third anniversary of Hamas attacks

    People are visiting memorials at the site of the Nova music festival where more than 378 people were killed and 44 taken hostage in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 2023.

    Two people hug each other at a memorial site of the Nova music festival.Reuters
    A man kissing a memorial plaque in the dark surrounded by other plaques.Reuters
    A woman hugs a sign at a memorial at the site of the Nova music festival.Reuters

  16. What happened to the 251 hostages captured by Hamas?

    On 7 October 2023, 251 hostages were captured during the Hamas-led attack on Israel.

    Of these, 168 were freed or rescued, while 83 were killed.

    The Israeli military retrieved the body of the last hostage in Gaza, Master Sgt Ran Gvili, in January 2026.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We promised - and I promised - to bring everyone back. We brought them all back, down to the very last captive."

    Once Gvili's body was returned, a former Israeli hostage who was held for nearly 500 days in Gaza told the BBC that the released captives can "now breathe and start our lives again".

    British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari embraces her mother, Mandy, after being released from Gaza in January 2025.Reuters

    British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari embraces her mother, Mandy, after being released from Gaza in January 2025. She was dragged from her home in southern Israel during Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack

  17. Events taking place throughout day in Israel

    A number of events are taking place in Israel today, as it marks three years since the deadliest terror attack in its history.

    At 06:29 (04:29 BST) - the time Hamas launched its attack three years ago - there will be a national minute's silence. There will also be a memorial at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near Gaza that was attacked.

    Further ceremonies will take place throughout the day, including at Re'im - the site of the Nova music festival where more than 378 people were killed, and 44 taken hostage.

    Members of the kibbutz community of Kfar Aza observe a moment's silence during last year's commemorationsReuters

    Members of the kibbutz community of Kfar Aza observe a moment's silence during last year's commemorations

  18. Israelis remember 7 October attacks, three years on

    A man and woman hug in a memorial site which includes signposts of numerous victims of the 7 October Hamas attacks at the Nova music festivalEPA/Shutterstock

    People visited the memorial site near Kibbutz Re'im on Sunday

    Israel is today marking three years since Hamas's attacks on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 more taken hostage.

    Israel responded to the deadliest attacks on Jews since the Holocaust by launching an extensive military offensive in Gaza which has killed at least 74,200 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

    Hamas and Israel agreed to halt the war in October last year as part of US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan, including the suspension of "all military operations" and Hamas handing over the last of the hostages.

    Gaza's health ministry says more than 1,460 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the territory since the ceasefire was declared. The Israeli military says it is pursuing Hamas commanders or terrorists.

    Multiple memorial events have been planned across Israel to commemorate the 7 October attacks, including at the site of the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed and taken hostage.

    Stay with us for updates on events in Israel and across the world, alongside reporting from our Middle East correspondents Lucy Williamson and Yolande Knell.