World marks three years since October 7 as survivors speak out, memorials are held and protests erupt across the globe

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

Eliya Cohen, freed after 505 days in Hamas captivity, told the United Nations he was chained by his leg with heavy iron chains, denied food, water and sleep, and forbidden from using a restroom. His newlywed wife Ziv Abud, a survivor of the Nova festival massacre where 413 people were killed and 44 taken hostage, sat alongside him as US Ambassador Mike Waltz fought back tears. The UN address came as Israel marked the third anniversary of the deadliest day in its history, when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages.

In Kibbutz Kfar Aza, community leader Zion Regev led a roll call of the dead, saying most residents remain too traumatised to return home three years on.

Avinatan Or, 33 — whose girlfriend Noa Argamani's screaming kidnap on a motorbike became one of the defining images of October 7 — has revealed he secretly dug a tunnel beneath Gaza trying to escape, was caught and brutally tortured.