Israel marks Oct 7 anniversary as talks held to end Gaza war

JERUSALEM: Israel marks the second anniversary of the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Tuesday (Oct 7), as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in Gaza under a United States-proposed peace plan.

Two years ago to the day, at the close of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas-led militants launched a massive assault on Israel, making it the deadliest day in the country's history.

In an attack that shocked the world, Palestinian fighters breached the Gaza-Israel border, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.

The attack killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, of whom 47 remain captive, including 25 that the Israeli military says are dead.

Two years on, with much of Gaza flattened, tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, a United Nations-declared famine unfolding and Israeli hostage families still longing for their loved ones' return, global pressure to end the war has escalated massively.

US President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan calling for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages, Hamas's disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The plan prompted talks in Egypt, with Israeli and Hamas negotiators holding "positive" indirect discussions on Monday, according to two sources close to the Palestinian militants' negotiating team.

The Palestinian sources said the talks, which had lasted four hours on the first day, would resume in the Red Sea town at midday on Tuesday.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that Israel should have ceased operations in Gaza already, in line with Trump's peace plan.

"Regarding the ceasefire, this question should be directed first to the Israeli occupation government. It was supposed to actually cease fire if the statements made by the prime minister there regarding adherence to the Trump plan were true," Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.

Ansari was cautious about the Egypt peace talks.

"I have no doubt that this round of negotiations is a process in which all parties are strongly committed to reaching a consensus, but there are many details to consider," he said.

He said the plan's clauses "require practical interpretation on the ground, which of course requires communication with all parties".

"SHE'S WITH ME"

In Israel, dozens of relatives and friends of those killed at the Nova music festival lit candles and held a minute's silence at the site of the attack, where militants killed more than 370 people and seized dozens of hostages.

Orit Baron, whose daughter Yuval was killed at the festival with her fiancé Moshe Shuva, told AFP that Oct 7 was a "black" day for her family.

"Now it's two years. And I'm here to be with her, because this is the last time that she was alive," the 57-year-old mother said at the site of the attack, adding she felt "that right now she's with me here".

Another ceremony was due in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, where weekly rallies have kept up calls for the captives' release.

A state-organised commemoration is planned for Oct 16 after the ongoing Sukkot holidays.

"I have said it time and again, and I am repeating it today with even greater urgency: Release the hostages, unconditionally and immediately," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"Put an end to the hostilities in Gaza, Israel and the region now. Stop making civilians pay with their lives and their futures."

"LOST EVERYTHING"

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza by air, land and sea has killed at least 67,160 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that over half of the dead are women and children.

Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, with homes, hospitals, schools and water networks in ruins.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless Gazans now shelter in overcrowded camps and open areas with little access to food, water or sanitation.

"We have lost everything in this war, our homes, family members, friends, neighbours," said Hanan Mohammed, 36, who is displaced from her home in Jabalia.

"I can't wait for a ceasefire to be announced and for this endless bloodshed and death to stop ... there is nothing left but destruction."

After two years of war, 72 per cent of the Israeli public said they were dissatisfied with the government's handling of the war, according to a recent survey by the Institute for National Security Studies.

"LOT OF GOODWILL"

A UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, while rights groups have accused Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Oct 7 attack. Both sides reject the allegations.

In Egypt's resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, mediators were shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations under tight security.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters in Cairo that negotiations were aimed at implementing a "first phase" of the agreement, "to create conditions for the release of the hostages, the access for aid, and the release of Palestinian prisoners".

"This, therefore, requires the redeployment of Israeli forces so that we can work to implement this phase," he added.

Trump has urged negotiators to "move fast" to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it detected a projectile fired from Gaza, with no injuries reported.

Trump told Newsmax TV that "I think we're very, very close to having a deal ... I think there's a lot of goodwill being shown now. It's pretty amazing actually".

Although both sides have welcomed Trump's proposal, reaching an agreement on its details is expected to be a Herculean task.

Two truces earlier in the war enabled the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, though they did not envisage a more permanent ceasefire or the disarmament of Hamas.

Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir has warned that if these negotiations fail, the military will "return to fighting" in Gaza.