What to know
- It has been two years since the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas-led fighters launched a multipronged assault on Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting about 250.
- The attack included fighters flying gliders into a music festival and seizing kibbutzim along the Gaza border, killing, maiming and kidnapping civilians.
- The Israel Defense Forces invaded Gaza in retaliation, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. More than 67,000 people in the Palestinian enclave have been killed, with many more wounded and maimed.
- Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes. Malnutrition has become widespread, famine has been declared in parts of the enclave, and large swaths have been reduced to rubble.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “change the Middle East” in the wake of the attack, and in a resulting multifront war, Israel has struck Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.
- While most of Israel’s longtime allies supported its actions in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, over time the war’s toll on civilians has prompted outrage and condemnation and fueled a renewed drive to recognize a Palestinian state.
- This week, Israel and Hamas began indirect talks over President Donald Trump’s plan, which could end the two-year war and free the remaining hostages from Gaza.
My heart's ‘still on Oct. 7,’ says hostage's mother
Nimrod Cohen was 19 and performing his military service when he was kidnapped from an Israeli tank on Oct. 7, 2023. Two years later, now 21, he remains a hostage in the enclave alongside 47 other people and is still believed to be alive.
His mother, Viki, has given multiple interviews, attended protests and traveled on delegations abroad since he was kidnapped, but she says her heart “is still on Oct. 7.”
“It’s Rosh Hashanah, Kippur, Sukkot, but for us, it’s not, it’s sad days, and we cannot celebrate until Nimrod will be back home,” she told NBC News. “I think many, many of the people in Israel feel the same. They feel that they cannot really celebrate unless the hostages will be back home.”
Nimrod should be home already, Cohen added, saying he was due to be released in the second phase of the ceasefire that fell apart in March when Israel launched a barrage of deadly airstrikes on Gaza.
“Israel decided not to get to the second phase, and she started the war again,” Cohen said. “We were really disappointed, and it broke my heart.”
For that reason, Cohen struggles to get too excited about the prospect of another ceasefire being negotiated in Egypt.
“I don’t want to be disappointed again, but I still have hope that maybe something good will happen,” she said, before she called on members of the Israel government not to “torpedo” the agreement.
Maybe, she said, “it will happen after all, and I can hug my son.”
Nutrition, health and hygiene — UNRWA records toll of war in Gaza
Israeli strikes have killed over 66,000 people, including 18,430 in Gaza, according to a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees report detailing the extent of the destruction in the strip after two years of war.
The agency, known as UNRWA, said that nearly all of Gaza's residents have been displaced, many multiple times, and that nearly 80% of structures across the enclave have been damaged or destroyed.
There have been at least 455 malnutrition-related deaths, including those of over 150 children, the report said, adding that war had also caused a spread of infectious diseases, including respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhea, scabies and skin rashes.
The report also cited the immense impact on health services, saying that "over 790 attacks on health workers, patients, hospitals, and other medical infrastructure in Gaza" had taken place and that less than 40% of hospitals remain functional.
Nearly 660,000 children had been forced out of school for a third year in a row, UNRWA said, while half a million girls lacked sufficient menstrual hygiene facilities.
A drone video captured families and friends paying respect today to the more than 370 people killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.
U.N. chief calls for 'just and lasting peace'
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres today renewed his call for the release of all hostages and an end to the war in Gaza, calling for a peace process that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live peacefully.
“A permanent ceasefire and a credible political process are essential to prevent further bloodshed & pave the way for peace,” he wrote on X, referring to Trump’s recent proposal.
The only path forward is “a just & lasting peace, in which Israelis, Palestinians & all the peoples of the region live side by side in security, dignity and mutual respect,” he added.
Head of Hamas delegation has ‘great appreciation’ for Trump effort to end war in Gaza
Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of the Hamas delegation taking part in peace talks in Egypt, said in an interview with Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News television station today that his group had come "to conduct responsible and serious negotiations."
He added, "We do not forget to renew our great appreciation for all the efforts made by the Arab, Islamic and international countries and brothers, as well as the efforts of U.S. President Trump in seeking to stop this war and end it forever."
Al-Hayya was one of the main targets of an Israeli strike in Qatar last month, which killed his son.
The pain of loss is 'indescribable,' Palestinian journalist says
Ahmed al-Agha worked as a sports journalist in Gaza before the war began, but he has since turned to covering political news whenever he can, amid the search for safety and the "struggle to find food."
Al-Agha said he has lost track of the number of times he has been displaced — “seven to 10 times,” he said — but he continues to move from one area to another “in search of safety.”
“Life has changed completely,” he told NBC News. “Some have lost their jobs, some have lost their relatives, some have lost family members, and some have lost friends.”
Al-Agha said that the pain of loss is “indescribable” and that each day feels “like a hundred years.” We have to “divide meals, divide flour and even share a single loaf of bread,” he said, “because of the famine we have experienced and continue to face in the Gaza Strip.”
A ceasefire “is the wish of every Palestinian,” he added. “There cannot be a normal life immediately after this war, but the Palestinian people are known for their love of life, their desire for coexistence, their passion for living, as long as there is a way.”
Netanyahu: 'We are in fateful days of decision'
Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in a message on X reflecting on the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Together, we broke the Iranian axis; together, we changed the face of the Middle East; together, we will ensure the eternity of Israel,” he wrote. “Citizens of Israel: We are in fateful days of decision. We will continue to act to achieve all the war’s objectives: the return of all the hostages, the elimination of Hamas’ rule, and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
‘Nothing here is like the rest of the world’
When Sobhi Asour’s brother died in 2007, he took care of his 3-year-old son, raising him, marrying him off and later welcoming two granddaughters to the world.
But Asour's heart was broken when his adopted son died during the war, he said, hit by an Israeli airstrike.
“It was not his father who raised him; I was his father,” he told NBC News. “I took him as an orphan, lived with him and my children, raised him, married him, built for him. Everything is gone.”
Asour said he had lost “all desire for life” but swore he would never leave Gaza.
“We are heading into winter now,” he said. “Our tents are torn, and as you see, the sun scorches us. Winter is coming, and I hope it does not. We are thinking now how we will cover ourselves and our little children.”
In Gaza, “nothing here is like the rest of the world,” he said. “Even if you had a fortune, it would vanish.”
Germans honor victims of Oct. 7, demand release of hostages
Berliners gathered in public today to pay tribute to the Israelis killed on Oct. 7 and call for the release of the hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
The demonstrators projected the image of an Israeli flag on the Brandenburg Gate, along with the words "Bring Them Home Now." Meanwhile, items recovered from the Nova Music Festival massacre were put on display at an exhibition in the city.
‘We could’ve been here much earlier’: Hostage cousin bemoans long wait for deal
Udi Goren’s cousin Tal Haimi was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, his body taken to Gaza, where it remains today.
Two years later, Goren, 44, can scarcely believe he’s still waiting to see his cousin, having been certain it would take only “weeks, maybe a couple of months,” before the war ended.
“I remember being here on the 100th day, and we thought it was insane that we made it to 100 days,” he told NBC News from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
Disappointed and angry, Goren said he wanted to support Trump's ceasefire deal, which he said could “end this catastrophe and bring everybody back home.”
“President Trump is supporting and pushing this deal very, very firmly,” he said. “And we see that he’s trying to hold up his commitment to ending wars, cutting deals and bringing peace.”
While Goren holds Hamas fully responsible for the killing of his cousin, he blames the decision-makers in Israel, including Netanyahu, for the long wait to see his cousin he has suffered.
“I think we could’ve been at this point much earlier,” he said.
While Trump’s peace plan would grant amnesty to members of Hamas, Goren said that “if this plan actually brings a better future for my daughter, then who cares about the past?”
