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Was Hamas’ attack the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust?
(JTA) — As the death toll from Saturday’s attack on Israel has mounted, Israelis and Jews around the world have reached for analogies to explain the magnitude of the tragedy, calling the invasion “Israel’s 9/11” or “Israel’s Pearl Harbor.”
Others have tried to put the death toll — now at 700 soldiers and civilians — in perspective by setting it against a far bloodier tragedy: the Holocaust.
“Not since the Holocaust has this large a number of Jews been killed in a single day. Let that sink in,” read an Instagram post from Daniella Greenbaum, a former producer for “The View.” Greenbaum added, “I have no words. My heart is broken. My soul is aflame.”
Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for Israeli President Isaac Herzog, posted online: “It’s no exaggeration to say yesterday was the darkest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust.” Lazar Berman, a reporter for the Times of Israel, made the same reference: “October 7, 2023 saw the most Jews slaughtered in a single day since the Holocaust.”
The claim appears to be accurate. There have been bloody days in Israel’s history and for Jews around the world since 1945, but none has had a civilian death toll this high. Israeli wars have had higher casualty totals overall, but none has seen this many civilians murdered in a single day.
Israel’s bloodiest war was its War of Independence, which saw 6,000 citizens of the nascent state die in the fighting. But that number is generally counted from No. 29, 1947 into 1949, when the fighting stopped — a period of close to two years. The majority of casualties were soldiers, not civilians.
Saturday’s attack is also being compared to the Yom Kippur War, a conflict in which the Israeli military was taken by surprise on a holy day. Hamas’ attack came one day after that war’s 50th anniversary.
Two of the country’s rival newspapers ran near-identical headlines on Sunday, both declaring that a war had broken out and comparing the Hamas attack to the 1973 war. One read, “The negligence of ’73, the negligence of ’23.”
But while more than 2,000 soldiers died over the course of more than two weeks, the war had a very low Israeli civilian death toll.
שערי העיתונים להיום, 8.10.2023. גלריית השערים המלאה עכשיו באתר. בוקר טוב https://t.co/1ByJZtZrvl pic.twitter.com/LSSaYT2bCI
— העין השביעית (@the7i) October 8, 2023
In more recent memory, Israelis approximate that 1,000 people died in the terror attacks of the second intifada, a period that is traditionally counted from late 2000 to mid-2005. The deadliest single bombing of that intifada was an attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya — which, like Saturday’s attack, came on another Jewish holiday (in that case, Passover). Thirty people were killed in that attack.
Large-scale murders of Jews have also happened outside of Israel since 1945, though with smaller death tolls than Saturday’s attack. In 1946, a pogrom in Kielce, Poland, killed at least 42 Jews. The bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which the American Jewish Committee called “the deadliest antisemitic attack outside Israel since the Holocaust,” killed 85 people.
By contrast, while the figures are still being tallied, it’s clear that at least several hundred Israeli civilians were killed on Saturday in addition to soldiers.
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The post Was Hamas’ attack the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.