Memorials near Sderot and Kibbutz Re’im mark the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack as residents and visitors reflect on its toll.
Route 232, which runs about 25 kilometres from Sderot to Kibbutz Re’im, has become part of a memorial route for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. Israelis gathered at southern memorial sites on Wednesday for the third anniversary. The Associated Press also reported commemorations at the site of the Nova music festival.
In Sderot, a memorial now stands where the former police station once stood. Hamas militants held the building and fought Israeli forces there for hours. Eighteen large pillars mark the footprint of the destroyed station and remember those killed that morning. On the eve of the anniversary, President Isaac Herzog said the road had become part of the map of grief: it was transformed from an ordinary route into a scene of death and then a path of escape and rescue.
Hinoam, an Argentine psychologist who recently moved to Israel, told ABC that the attack felt especially painful because it happened in her own country and home. Three years later, she sees people beginning to heal, but says the trauma, fear and grief remain.
Farther south, the road runs alongside Gaza. Before the attack it connected rural communities including Kfar Aza, Alumim, Be’eri and Re’im. On October 7, the area became a site of mass killing. Israel has said at least 1,200 people were killed. Israel does not allow international journalists unrestricted access to Gaza, so the territory’s ruined buildings can be seen only from a distance.
Rocket shelters stand at bus stops along the road, covered with photographs and stickers remembering victims. In Re’im, the forest around the Nova festival site has become a memorial. More than 3,000 people were at the festival on October 7, according to organisers. At 6:29 a.m., the music was overtaken by rockets and gunfire.
Tali, 19, and More, 18, travelled from Argentina with a group for young Jews. More told ABC that repeatedly seeing images online had not prepared her for the scale of the site in person. Visitors move among portraits of the dead, flowers and other tributes; stickers bearing victims’ faces remain on shelters along the route.