On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and led to the abduction of 250 others.
According to United Nations estimates, 48 hostages remain, with 20 believed alive. In the two years since, the war has claimed more than 66,000 Palestinian lives, many of them women and children. Thousands more are injured or displaced, with famine spreading across Gaza.
Amid global calls for a ceasefire and shifting diplomatic pressure, local voices are still processing what October 7 means to them.
“Looking toward October 7, 2025, I’m hoping and praying that it will be a turning point toward peace. I am fervently praying that we find a way towards peace and an end to the fighting. Not just for this conflict, but really the beginning of the end of some sort of the conflict where we can find a way to live together in peace.
I think that peace will only come when we recognize that there has been mutual loss and mutual pain and suffering. Until we can acknowledge and offer comfort to those who grieve, there's not going to be peace, there's not going to be healing.
I think there’s still reason to be optimistic. I think that the majority of people who live on that little sliver of land, Jews and Muslims and Christians; I think that your average person really wants peace. They just want to be able to care for their family and know that when they send their kids to school, they're going to come home safe.”
“October 7th has great meaning for any Palestinian from Gaza, for Israelis. It changed the entire equation of the conflict. And for those who have family in Gaza, it's the start of the genocide for us, which was even more horrific than the Nakba. In the beginning it was like, okay, there's going to be a war, like every few years, as Israel calls it, mowing the lawn. But it just kept continuing. It was like a nightmare that never ended. It's surreal.
When it first started we lost 65 family members, and now it’s over 200. This was a not just a genocide in terms of losing family members, but it was a cultural and religious genocide because they destroyed our cemeteries, destroyed our mosques, our houses of worship. How does one recover from something like this?
But, because of this genocide Americans from all walks of life, from the left, from the right, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, have come together. The alliances have been strengthened, saying, ‘not in our name.’ So I do think the conflict in Gaza has changed America.”
Offir Gutelzon, Co-founder, UnXeptable
“October 7 was the worst terror attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust. There is no excuse for what Hamas did, and anyone who shows support for that day should be condemned.
When I started to hear calls on campuses shouting from the river to the sea, this really bothered me because I was unable to understand how people can call that and not see it means eliminating Israel. So I created a slogan and t-shirts that say ‘From the river to the sea, only peace will set us free.’
You cannot be pro-Israeli without being pro-Palestinian, and you cannot be pro-Palestinian without being pro-Israeli. There are 14 million people between the river and the sea, and no one is going anywhere.
Most Israelis don’t want this war; we are showing that we are not our government. Being against the war doesn’t mean being against Israel.”
Dr. Hiba Hamdan, Palestinian American Nephrologist
“It’s always been very difficult to be a Palestinian. I am the daughter of two Palestinians who were dispossessed and lost their homes and everything in 1948 and 1976.
As a mother and a physician, I’ve always believed in being positive. But over the past two years, it’s been really hard to think that way. The mother in me suffers the most. My heart aches as I watch thousands of children who will be physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives.
I think of the thousands of children who have no one related to them who is alive. I think of my daughters, and when they’re upset over something trivial, I hold them close. These children have nobody to hold them close, nobody to love them, nobody to console them.
Every human has the responsibility to care about others. Every person deserves to live a dignified life, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli. Until we are all able to acknowledge that, there will be no peace.”
Dr. Yousef Khelfa, Palestinian American Hematologist
“It’s hard to separate October 7 and look at it as one day. You have to look at the whole context of the history to understand why we reached this point and how we can prevent it from happening again.
The root of the problem has to be acknowledged and addressed. In the early 1990s there was hope that peace would come with the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995, but the main subjects — settlements, refugees’ rights, borders, and the status of Jerusalem — were delayed.
There is no justification for violence from anyone, but you need to understand that Palestinians, they want peace. but they want to live in dignity and freedom.
There is always light at the end of the tunnel. And healing will come with time, but we have to start from somewhere. When people, including the US, come to a decision that Palestinians are human beings with basic rights, then everything will come to peace and healing.”
“The struggles between Israelis and Palestinians did not begin on October 7. They began many years ago, all the way back to the Nakba, when Palestinians had to leave their land.
The impact has been tremendous for Palestinians and for Muslims who have family and friends in Gaza, but also for Jewish people watching their Israeli counterparts and family suffer. Our work is to lean into conversations that are very difficult and to understand each other’s pain.
It’s wrong to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a team sport — either you’re for one side or against one side. We just have to figure out how we can be compatible. It would be a much stronger, more beautiful region if people could figure that out.”
Brenda Wolfson, Retired Nurse
“My grandson grew up in a home where Palestinians were welcome — he’d come home and find them having coffee in the living room.
When it came time for him to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, he chose a unit where he wouldn’t have to go into the West Bank or harass Palestinians. He joined the Search and Rescue division of the Home Front Command.
On October 7, he was stationed with new recruits near the northern Gaza border. When the missiles started flying, he and 19 officers went out to defend the base and protect civilians. He helped rescue people before an RPG hit, killing him and three others.
You can’t imagine the heartbreak. But instead of turning to hate, my daughter reached out to her Palestinian neighbors and told them she did not blame them — that she knew they were not Hamas. She joined the Parents Circle, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones.
We have to learn how to live together. We don’t know what the answer is, but the hope is for an immediate peace and an end to the tragedy in Gaza. We just have to keep trying.”
This article features excerpts from extended interviews broadcast on Insight on October 7, 2025. You can hear the full conversation at CapRadio.com/Insight.
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