October 7 anniversary puts Netanyahu’s record at center of Israeli election

Israel marked the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Wednesday as responsibility for the security disaster became a central issue in the campaign before the October 27 parliamentary election. Reuters and AP reported that the first national vote since the 2023 attack will test Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.

According to AP, Netanyahu and his opponents are making the attack a recurring theme in campaign speeches and advertising. His rivals are seeking accountability for the failures preceding it. Tamar Hermann, a public opinion expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, told AP that the trauma continues to shape political debate.

Axios reported on Wednesday that most polls put Netanyahu’s Likud party at 20 to 22 parliamentary seats, compared with 32 previously. His right-wing coalition was polling at 50 to 54 seats, below the 61 needed for a majority. Those figures describe survey estimates, rather than an election result.

Reuters reported that commemorations were planned at the Nova music festival site near Gaza and at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. Militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in the 2023 attack. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 74,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there cited by Reuters.

This is the first anniversary with no hostages remaining in Gaza, Reuters said, after exchanges involving living and dead hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The agency reported that the US-brokered October 10, 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting but has neither ended Israeli attacks in Gaza nor secured the disarmament of Hamas and other militant groups.

An official Israeli consular notice confirms that voting for the next Knesset will take place on Tuesday, October 27. It says eligibility requires Israeli citizenship, registration as a resident and reaching age 18 by election day. With twenty days remaining, the campaign unfolds against the anniversary’s renewed focus on security and political responsibility.