Thousands gather in London to mark two years since 7 October attacks | UK News

Thousands of people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Sunday to mark the two years since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 – the deadliest in Israel’s history.

Candles were also lit for those affected by a deadly attack outside a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday.

The event – one of many taking place across England today – shared the same central London location as Saturday’s demonstrations in support of proscribed group Palestine Action, at which nearly 500 protesters were arrested.

Addressing the crowd, Phil Rosenberg, president of Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), said the community remained “determined to confront antisemitism wherever it appears”.

Another speaker at the event on Sunday was Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvi, who said: “Today, we recall the precious lives who were mercilessly taken from our midst on 7 October.”

“We remember all subsequent atrocities since that original day,” he added.

Sharone Lifschitz, whose parents were taken hostage from their home in the attacks, told the crowd it was almost two years “since our lives were torn apart”.

Her father, 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, died in Hamas captivity. Her mother, 85-year-old Yocheved, was released in late October 2023.

She said: “We will never forget our loved ones or the horror they suffered and our heart is also with the community in mourning for the recent hate crimes and murders in Manchester.

“May today be the last time we come [together] as a community asking, demanding, for the war to end”.

Shaun Lemel, who had attended the Nova music festival – one of the sites in Israel attacked by Hamas on 7 October – said the experience would “never leave me”.

“We are fighting, not only for Israel, but of the basic right of every person to live [in] peace and safety”, he said.

Hundreds of people also joined a rally in Manchester, despite safety concerns in the wake of Thursday’s attack on a synagogue in the city.

The gathering, organised by North West Friends of Israel, saw people wave Israel flags and some held banners and posters calling for the release of the hostages

At the London event, Mr Rosenberg called the Palestine Action protests “unacceptable” for having been held on the same week as the killing of two men at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish religious calendar.

But responding to criticism of Saturday’s event, Defend Our Juries member, Zoe Cohen, said as a Jewish person she is “grieving after the appalling synagogue attack” but also “grieving for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, displaced and starved in Gaza”.

She added: “I think it’s possible for us to be compassionate and open our hearts to victims of multiple atrocities at one time.”

In the statement, released during the protest, she said “if today’s vigil had been cancelled we would have been letting terror win”.

On Tuesday, events will be held in Israel and around the world to commemorate two years since the 7 October attacks on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response, so far killing at least 66,288 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has been repeatedly displaced and more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed.

Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza independently since the start of the war, making verifying claims from both sides difficult.

Twenty-four months on, the military action is still ongoing.

Last week, the US unveiled a 20-point plan for peace, which proposed an immediate end to the fighting, which includes the release of 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans.

On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free the hostages, but did not go into further detail about the proposals.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he thought the hostages held in Gaza would be freed “very soon”, with mediators set to meet in Egypt on Monday for indirect peace talks between Hamas and Israel.