Today marks two years since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 — a day that changed Israel, Gaza, and the world.
That morning, Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust — and it set in motion a war of historic proportions.
Israel’s retaliation was swift. Airstrikes leveled neighborhoods. Then came the ground invasion. As months turned into years, the death toll climbed: nearly 2,000 Israelis and an estimated 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Gaza’s skyline is now rubble. Hunger and disease claim lives that bombs no longer reach.
But the story didn’t stop there. The conflict spilled outward — to Lebanon, Yemen, and eventually to Iran itself. A twelve-day Israel–Iran confrontation reshaped the region, weakening Tehran and toppling Syria’s regime. And yet, for all the firepower, what’s left is exhaustion.
Two years later, forty-eight hostages remain in captivity. Entire generations have been traumatized. And the world, watching the suffering in Gaza, is beginning to recognize what was once unthinkable — moving toward formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
So here we are, two years later, asking: what has this war achieved?
Israel sought security — but found isolation.
Hamas sought victory — but brought devastation upon its own people.
And the innocent, on both sides, are buried beneath the rubble of those ambitions.
War reveals not only the enemy’s brutality, but our own blindness. In Gaza’s ruins and Israel’s grief lies a shared truth: when vengeance becomes policy, everyone loses something human.
Perhaps this anniversary shouldn’t be marked by speeches or flags, but by silence — a silence that listens. Because in that silence, maybe we can still hear what remains of our collective conscience whispering: never again — for anyone.
I’m Bill Ryan.
