Insensitive pro-Palestine protests have been scheduled on the two-year anniversary of October 7, when over 1,000 Israeli individuals were killed by Hamas terrorists.

Demonstrators in various Western nations, including the US and Canada, are planning to march through city streets and college campuses to ‘honor the martyrs of Gaza’, as Israel and Hamas continue ceasefire discussions in Egypt.

At the same time, thousands of grieving families have been lighting candles to mourn those who were murdered on October 7, 2023, with hundreds more relatives still holding out hope for the safe return of loved ones who remain in Hamas captivity.

Last year, Columbia University’s Butler Lawn was the locus of protests which proliferated in response to the terror attack, but on Tuesday morning, it was filled with a memorial for the victims. 

The lawn was overtaken by a pro-Palestine tent city in 2024, and it became the scene of clashes between protestors and Jewish students until it was eventually dismantled by the NYPD. 

On Tuesday morning, it was filled with 1,205 white chairs, each showing a photograph of a person murdered in the Hamas incursion along with a candle. 

Baruch Apisdorf, whose roommate and best friend David Newman was killed in the attack, organized the memorial with the group he leads called Let’s Do Something. 

‘You go by chair after chair after chair, and you understand that there shouldn’t be a picture in every chair,’ Apisdorf told CBS News.

‘That should be a human life, but it isn’t anymore. If we were to spread this out in a straight line, it would be almost a mile long.’

‘You’ll never take away David’s life. It lives on in me. It lives on in you,’ he added. ‘It lives on in every single person that wants to make a better tomorrow.’

However, thousands of people are planning to march in cities across the US, including New York, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, to ‘honor the martyrs of Gaza and Palestine’. 

‘For 77 years Israel has waged genocide against the Palestinian people, and for the past two years Gaza has endured a new stage of that genocide while the world has watched it unfold live on our screens,’ the organizers wrote. 

The ‘day of action’ has been organized by various groups including the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and the Palestinian Youth Movement. 

It has been two years since thousands of Hamas-led militants poured into southern Israel after a surprise barrage of rockets. 

They stormed army bases, farming communities and the Nova music festival, killing 1,205 people, including 38 children, 736 Israeli civilians, and 379 members of the security forces. 

Hamas also abducted 251 more people, some of whom have been released through ceasefire deals, while many died in captivity. 

Forty-eight hostages remain inside Gaza, and around 20 of them are believed by Israel to still be alive. 

Hamas has said it will release them only in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all of the captives are returned and Hamas has been disarmed.

The attack set in motion a cascade of events that led Israel into combat with Iran and its allies across the region, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which suffered major losses. 

The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran’s military and nuclear program in a 12-day war in June. 

Israel has killed several top militants as well as Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, and it has vastly depleted the military capabilities of its enemies while seizing control over most of Gaza as well as parts of Lebanon and Syria.

But the failure to return the hostages has left the country deeply divided, with weekly mass protests against Netanyahu. Israel is more isolated internationally than it has been in decades.

In the border community of Reim, where the Nova music festival was being held two years ago, thousands of Israeli people gathered to share memories of relatives and friends who were killed. 

Many gathered before sunrise, playing the same track of music that was playing two years ago, stopping for a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. — the exact time the attack began.

People embraced and spoke of their loss. Alon Muskinov, 28, who was at the festival and lost three of his closest friends, said survivors don’t need an anniversary to remember.

‘We don’t need a specific day, because we live this every day anew,’ he said.

Yehuda Rahmani, whose daughter Sharon — a police officer at the festival — was also among those killed, said he visits the Nova site every day. 

He drinks his morning cup of coffee next to a photo of his daughter at the last place where she was alive.

To this day, Rahmani keeps hoping he will run into a survivor who could tell him about his daughter’s last moments. He is angry at the government for not launching an inquiry into security failures of that day.

‘When you don’t know what happened, it makes it so much harder,’ he said.

Israeli artillery and the boom of explosions in Gaza echoed across the Nova site as smoke billowed over the Strip. 

The Israeli military said a rocket was launched from northern Gaza in the morning, but no damage or injuries were reported.