Families of Oct 7 victims, survivors plan week of remembrance events

The October 7 Council announced on Sunday that it will host a week of commemorations, protests, and gatherings to remember the victims of the Hamas massacre three years ago.

The commemorations will start on Saturday evening, Oct. 3, at the conclusion of Simchat Torah, the same day on the Hebrew calendar that the Hamas attacks took place.

On that day, a memorial exhibition called “The Void Left Behind” will open at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. The title is a play on words in Hebrew that can be translated as either “The dead body left behind” or "The void left behind.”

Rather than attempting to recount that day through photographs and testimonies, the exhibit focuses on personal items belonging to people murdered in the attack: fallen soldiers, hostages and residents of the Gaza Envelope communities.

Among the items on display will be the balance bike of the late Ariel Bibas; the beret of the late combat intelligence observer Roni Eshel; the stethoscope and uniform of the late paramedic Amit Mann; musical instruments belonging to the late Yagev Buchshtab; the Maccabi Haifa scarf of the late Lior Tarshansky; and the camera of the late Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth photographer Roy Idan.

The personal objects will be presented along a path showing the moments prior to Oct. 7, moving through the attack sites; military bases, kibbutzim and the Nova music festival, concluding with the void left behind by those who were murdered, killed, or abducted.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, several memorial and protest activities are planned across the country. The events will start with a minute of silence at 06:29, the time when Hamas began its rocket barrages into southern Israel.

After that minute of silence, survivors, family members, and members of the Oct. 7 Council will give short speeches and comments at locations in Jerusalem, Caesarea, the Gaza Envelope, and other places throughout Israel.

At 7:00, a.m., several protests are planned outside the homes of ministers who were in the coalition government on Oct. 7, 2023.

Throughout the rest of the day, various protests and one-minute memorial stops are planned across the country, with the final event planned for that evening in Tel Aviv.

At 9:15 p.m., a National Memorial Ceremony will take place at Ganei Yehoshua Park in Tel Aviv, led by former hostage Eli Sharabi and actress Shani Cohen. It will also include performances by Israeli artists, including Yuval Rafael, a survivor of the attacks, who represented Israel at Eurovision 2025.

That ceremony will be live-streamed to several other locations across the country, including the nearby Hostage Square, outside the Kirya military headquarters.

“Three years after Oct. 7, this day must not become just another date on the calendar,” the October 7 Council said in a statement Sunday. “Behind the numbers are people, families and entire lives that were cut short, and behind the disaster there are still questions the Israeli public deserves answers to.”