Israelis gather to mark two years since October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 in 2023

Commemorations held in kibbutzim whose members were killed or kidnapped and Tel Aviv rally will call for hostages’ release.   

Israelis gathered across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during an assault on southern Israel.

The anniversary has been overshadowed by hopes that the war in Gaza may finally be coming to a close. Negotiators from Hamas and Israel gathered in Egypt on Monday where they began indirect talks to iron out the details of the release of all hostages held in Gaza and the return of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Unofficial commemorations will be held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped, and a large rally will be held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The official national ceremony of remembrance will be held on 16 October in Israel’s national cemetery on Mount Herzl after the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

The memory of the collective trauma of the attack two years ago – the deadliest single attack in Israel’s history – still looms large across the country. 

The faces of hostages still held in Gaza are plastered on bus stops around the country, and homes that were lit on fire by militants as they marauded through kibbutzim stand charred and abandoned. Hundreds of survivors of the attack on the Nova music festival attended a memorial on Sunday with former hostages and the families of victims.

“This angel would have been 27 today. I live the memory as if it were an hour ago,” Ofir Dor, whose son Idan Dor was killed at the festival, said while standing under a memorial showing victims’ faces.  

(Times of Israel reports)

When Adir Mesika’s loved ones were invited to a memorial marking two years since he was murdered at the Nova music festival, the invitation arrived in his own handwriting.

That poignant touch was enabled by the Ot Hayim project, by a group of graphic designers who have been working for the past two years to turn the handwriting of victims of Hamas’s October 7 attack into publicly available fonts.

“I think there’s really something about handwriting that is so personal, like a personal stamp,” Mesika’s mother, Sheerie, told The Times of Israel. “They say that through someone’s handwriting, you can know a person’s personality.”

A sea of memorial projects has engulfed Israel since the worst terror attack in the country’s history, with loved ones paying tribute to those slain via stickers, tattoos, Torah scrolls, musical creations and much more. 

Ot Hayim – which is Hebrew for “sign of life,” and a play on the Hebrew word ot, which also means a letter of the alphabet – is providing families with a uniquely personal way to see a piece of their loved one live on in perpetuity.

For the Mesika family, being able to use Adir’s handwriting on invitations, on his memorial website and as part of other memorial efforts in his name – including donating engagement rings to young couples – “really connects to him,” said Sheerie. “It’s like he’s the one doing the inviting. It’s very compelling.”

Staff Sgt. Noa Price and a sample of her handwriting, which was turned into a font by the ‘Ot Hayim’ project. (Times of Israel) 

Noa left behind many notebooks from school with her neat and organized handwriting, “and suddenly to see it as a font that can be used – every time I get photos or someone chooses her handwriting – for me it’s very emotional. It’s like they’re choosing Noa.”

Sigal said teachers she knows have used Noa’s font to set up their classrooms for the new school year, and she heard from a former IDF observation soldier who used it for her university thesis project.

Each time she hears of someone using the font, “on the one hand, my heart skips a beat, and on the other hand, I’m happy that people learn and read about her and who she was, and she can touch many people’s hearts this way.”

Her daughter’s handwriting, Sigal said, “was so unique and aesthetic – and it’s a big part of who she was – a sensitive and gentle person on the one hand, but very present and very significant in many ways. She had so much internal and external beauty.”

Noa left behind many notebooks from school with her neat and organized handwriting, “and suddenly to see it as a font that can be used – every time I get photos or someone chooses her handwriting – for me it’s very emotional. It’s like they’re choosing Noa.”

Sigal said teachers she knows have used Noa’s font to set up their classrooms for the new school year, and she heard from a former IDF observation soldier who used it for her university thesis project.

Each time she hears of someone using the font, “on the one hand, my heart skips a beat, and on the other hand, I’m happy that people learn and read about her and who she was, and she can touch many people’s hearts this way.”

Her daughter’s handwriting, Sigal said, “was so unique and aesthetic – and it’s a big part of who she was – a sensitive and gentle person on the one hand, but very present and very significant in many ways. She had so much internal and external beauty.”