Israelis are marking two years since Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage
At the site of the Nova festival attack, people embrace at memorials garnished with flowers, tributes and candles
"On 7 October 2023 our peaceful and happy life turned into hell, grief and unimaginable loss that accompanies me every moment," former hostage Eli Sharabi says
In Egypt, Israel and Hamas continue indirect talks on Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan - our Gaza correspondent says despite cautious signs of progress few Palestinians dare to hope
At least 67,173 people have been killed in Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry
Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza to report freely
Siren sounds in Tel Aviv, marking the 7 October anniversary
Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent
Image source, EPAUS Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to join Israel-Hamas peace talks in Egypt imminently.
He will be accompanied by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, with the pair expected to depart the US today to arrive in Egypt on Wednesday, a source familiar with the negotiations tells the BBC.
Image source, ReutersThe US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reiterated Washington's strong backing for Israel on the second anniversary of the "heinous" 7 October attack carried out by Hamas.
Writing on X, he says "the United States remains steadfast in our support for Israel in our common fight against terrorism and our shared commitment to bringing an end to the suffering of all hostages and their families".
He says Trump's 20-point peace plan "offers a historic opportunity to close this dark chapter, and to build a foundation for lasting peace and security for all".
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has shot down four drones that were launched by the Houthis in Yemen towards Israel in recent hours.
The fourth drone was stopped just outside Israel's borders so sirens weren't sounded.
Earlier, sirens were triggered in the southern resort city Eilat after drones infiltrated Israeli airspace.
The IDF also says that rockets were fired from Gaza earlier today.
As our Middle East correspondent in Israel reported earlier, the military said it would be on high alert throughout the course of the day.
Asma Khalid
Co-host, The Global Story Podcast
Image source, Getty ImagesLiran Berman is among a number of hostages' relatives travelling to Washington DC
Former hostages and relatives of Israelis still being held inside Gaza are in Washington DC today to urge US politicians to maintain the momentum in finalising a ceasefire deal.
Among them are Liran Berman, who has been on a two-year quest to bring his 28-year-old twin brothers Gali and Ziv home.
”We are waiting, we are stressed out, but this is the most optimistic I've been,” Berman tells me in an interview for The Global Story podcast.
The decision to unite in Washington on the 7 October anniversary is a sign how crucial hostage families see Donald Trump’s role in this negotiation.
“ You can agree with his politics, you can disagree. He's an eccentric man,” Berman says. “I don't care about anything else than he's the one that made the deals possible... his connection with Prime Minister Netanyahu... his connection to the mediators in Qatar, he's making the deals happen.”
On Friday, Hamas said it accepted, at least in partial terms, Trump’s peace plan. Mediators have flown to Cairo to hammer out the details.
Berman has hope that this time might be different than the previous two temporary truces that collapsed. But he’s also worried that his brothers will feel he hasn’t fought hard enough these last two years for their release.
“ I live with an ongoing guilt... because I failed, I failed them. I didn't manage to bring them back," he says.
Image source, Miranda LevyThe Metropolitan Police has stepped up patrols in the Muswell Hill area of London after footage circulated online of a woman cutting down yellow ribbons that had been tied to a fence to raise awareness of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Met says officers were made aware of the video and "are reviewing the footage to determine whether any offences, including hate crime or criminal damage, have been committed".
"Enquiries remain ongoing," the force says.
Image source, Miranda Levy
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
Israel does not allow international journalists independent access into Gaza, so our reporting happens largely through freelancers in the enclave and remotely, through phone calls and messages.
Loay Hamdan told a BBC freelancer in central Gaza that he was desperate for the war to end.
“We’ve lost loved ones, families, friends, houses, even the neighbourhoods that we lived in. We’re lost everything in this war,” he said. “We’ve had enough. We’ve suffered for two years. There’s no home or family here that hasn't experienced misery.”
Khaled Hamad, who was displaced from his home in the north, said the past two years in Gaza could be summed up as a time of “depression, pain, suffering and humiliation”.
"We hope a deal is reached and that it will stop this bloodshed… and for peace and security to prevail so we can get our lives from before 7 October back and re-start building our dreams and ambitions and a better future for our families and ourselves."
Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent
A senior Palestinian source familiar with the ceasefire negotiations has told the BBC that mediators have reached an understanding with both Hamas and Israel on the agenda and mechanisms for the ongoing talks in Sharm el-Sheikh.
According to the source, the discussions will follow a five-point framework covering the key issues:
Image source, ReutersThe German chancellor is among world leaders calling for Hamas to release the hostages
Leaders across the globe have been issuing statements over the last 24 hours to mark two years since Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel. Here's a look at what some of them have been saying:
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson addresses Swedish Jews - saying they should know "we stand behind you". He adds: "Sweden should be a safe country for Jews, always."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says "the time for peace has come" as he calls on Hamas to "immediately release all hostages" and lay down their arms.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Hamas "stands in opposition to all humanity", adding that the armed Palestinian group "planned a nightmare of scarcely comprehensible cruelty and made it a reality".
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon writes on X that ongoing talks "offer the opportunity to end the fighting, release the hostages, and provide help the people of Gaza so desperately need".
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says the anniversary provides an opportunity "to reiterate our strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms" as well as calling for the "immediate" release of the hostages.
French President Emmanuel Macron calls for unity against antisemitism. "Such an abomination must never happen again," he says.
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
I’ve just been speaking to British-Israeli Simon King, whose community in southern Israel was targeted in the 7 October 2023 attacks.
While two years have passed, he says it “still feels like yesterday” that residents of Kibbutz Be’eri were hiding in safe rooms - as gunmen from Hamas and other groups rampaged through the streets, burning homes and shooting people indiscriminately.
About one in 10 residents were killed that day. Thirty were kidnapped – four of whom remain in Gaza, all of them dead.
Most of the community now live in a temporary kibbutz, about a 40-minute drive away, with many too scared or traumatised to return to Be’eri.
Simon said he was pessimistic that a deal would be reached. “We don’t seem any closer to resolving the problem,” he said.
Image source, EPAThe second anniversary of the 7 October attacks has been marked in Israel this morning with gatherings at the site of the Nova music festival, in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv.
The anniversary comes as indirect talks take place in Egypt in response to a US proposal for a peace plan that was announced last week. Here's the latest so far today:
By Emma Pengelly, Jamie Ryan and Alex Murray
As indirect ceasefire talks continue in Egypt, the families of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza anxiously wait for news.
Two years ago, Hamas and other armed factions attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
One of Israel’s central war aims has been to free the 255 people being held in Gaza - this figure includes four men held prior to the 7 October 2023 attack.
Forty eight of them are still in Gaza and Israel has said 20 of them are believed to be alive.
Among the dead hostages whose bodies are still being held is 27-year-old Inbar Hayman, the only woman still captive.
Of the 207 hostages which have been returned to Israel, 140 were handed over alive as part of ceasefire deals or in separate releases. The bodies of eight dead hostages were also handed over.
The bodies of 51 hostages have been recovered in operations carried out by the Israeli military. Eight hostages have been rescued alive by Israeli forces.
Image source, EPAThe ICRC acted as an intermediary when Hamas agreed to exchange hostages during a ceasefire earlier this year
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Tel Aviv says the "wound" of the 7 October attack is "far from being healed" two years on.
Yuval Arie Nevo, the head of the humanitarian organisation in the city, says: "Many people affected in Israel are still suffering from the loss of friends and family members; the pain of separation from their loved ones; and the uncertainty of ongoing hostilities."
The ICRC acted as an intermediary when Hamas agreed to exchange hostages during a ceasefire at the start of the year.
He calls for access "to those being held hostage, to assess their condition, provide medical attention, and facilitate family contact".
"We have not and we will not stop working for this," he adds.
Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Re'im
Enaam al Wahidi, seen here with her youngest son, are displaced in central Gaza
With a breeze block for a headstone, Emaan al-Wahidi prays by the grave of her dead son in central Gaza.
Early last year, Jehad, who was 17, was on the street when an Israeli air strike hit nearby. He died from internal bleeding two days later.
“In these two years, I lost so much. I lost Jehad. I lost my home which is destroyed. We lost all of the beautiful life that we lived before the war,” Emaan says.
Early in the war, she was displaced with her family to Deir al-Balah and set up a temporary school to help children like her own who were missing their education. She is proud of her oldest daughter, who was able to leave Gaza to study at Glasgow University.
In the ceasefire at the start of this year, Emaan returned home to Gaza City only to be forced to flee with her three youngest children last month, as Israeli forces advanced. Her husband stayed behind to care for his elderly parents who could not make the journey south.
Emaan is now living in a rented garage struggling each day to find food and clean water.
So far, Israel’s bombing has not stopped despite a demand from President Trump.
“When the evening comes, the fear comes with it,” Emaan says. “Me and my three children are afraid of the air strikes. All the night we are sleeping together, holding each other, especially my smallest child who puts his head on me all night.”
For Emaan, the war has felt endless. “We expected it would be one month, two months, three months but two years it’s a very long time,” she explains. “Every second we look at the news to see what happened. And I’m afraid that this ceasefire will not be completed and that the war will come back to us.”
In Tel Aviv this morning, sirens sounded in Dizengoff Square to mark two years since the deadly Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza's border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping a further 251 others - some of whom are still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.
Michael Shuval
BBC Arabic
Gadi Moses, 81, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October
"Nothing in life prepares you for such a situation. I did not see anyone for 481 days."
Those are the words of 81-year-old Gadi Moses from Kibbutz Nir Oz - the oldest surviving Israeli hostage released from Gaza.
He speaks to me from a vineyard, where three of its founders were killed. Moses is the only one left alive.
Moses says the toughest moments from his time in captivity were yearning for his children and grandchildren.
"You can easily sink into depression," he says, "but in my toolbox, depression doesn't exist".
Moses was one of three Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza that was released in January this year, along with five Thai nationals.
For Moses, the release of the remaining hostages must come first because they "don't have time".
"I am angry, I am sad, I can't think of anything else," he says.
Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, in Jerusalem
Image source, Getty ImagesSmoke rises over parts of Gaza, seen this morning from Israel near the border
It is a grim coincidence that peace talks are happening exactly two years after Hamas inflicted a trauma on Israelis that is still acute. The 7 October attacks killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and 251 were taken hostage.
Israelis and Palestinians both want the war to end. Israelis are war-weary and polls show that a majority want a deal that returns the hostages and ends the war.
More than two million Palestinians in Gaza are in a humanitarian catastrophe, caught between the firepower of the IDF and hunger and in some areas of a man-made famine created by Israel's restrictions on aid entering the Strip.
Hamas wants to find a way to survive, even though it has agreed to give up power to Palestinian technocrats.
Israel would like to be dictating the terms of a Hamas surrender. But the fact that Hamas has a chance for a serious negotiation opens up more possibilities for it than looked likely just a month ago.
These talks are an opportunity, but it is not certain that it will be seized by Hamas and Israel.
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
I’ve been hearing from more people in Gaza about their lives over the past two years, and reactions to the indirect talks currently under way in Egypt (more details on that in my colleague's earlier post).
Twenty-year-old Ayat was in the first year of a medical degree at a university in Gaza when the war started. She now continues her studies remotely.
She says she has heard “bits and pieces” about Trump’s plan through group chats with classmates and friends.
“I hope that peace comes so that we can return to some part of our normal lives, eat fresh meat again, and I can go back to university,” she tells me.
Her family recently returned to their home in southern Gaza after a long period of displacement and found it “partially destroyed”.
As a reminder: Negotiating teams for Israel and Hamas are in Egypt for a second day and are holding indirect talks that are aimed at striking a deal to implement the first phase of Donald Trump's 20-point plan to end the fighting in Gaza.
As we've been reporting this morning, people have been gathering at the site of the Nova music festival to mark two years since Hamas's deadly attack on Israel.
Here are some of the latest images from the former festival site, as well as other pictures of vigils and demonstrations being held across the country today to commemorate the victims of the attacks.
Image source, ReutersTwo women embrace inside a small shelter that has been put up at the site of the Nova festival
Image source, ReutersA man holds a German and Israeli flag as he looks at the images that have been put up at the site of the deadly Hamas attack
Image source, ReutersFamilies of Israeli hostages and supporters protest outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence
Lucy Manning
Special correspondent
The former hostage Eli Sharabi - who discovered only on his release after 491 days in captivity that his UK-Israeli family had been murdered on 7 October - says "he is holding his breath" for the return of the remaining hostages.
"We’ve suffered enough, we deserve a different reality. We want to start healing," he writes in an Instagram post.
Hamas is still holding the body of his brother, Yossi, who was also kidnapped on 7 October and the friend he was held with, Alon Ohel, who is thought to be alive.
Image source, EPAIn the Instagram post, published this morning, he describes his feelings on this first 7 October since he was released.
"Two years have passed since the day everything changed for me. On 7th October 2023 our peaceful and happy life turned into hell, grief and unimaginable loss that accompanies me every moment until my last day.
"However, since my release, I choose every morning to be full of life, action and hope. These days I and the whole Sharabi family are holding our breath in the hope of the return of my brother Yossi for a proper burial and the return of my dear friend Alon Ohel and all the kidnapped."
Last week, in his first UK interview, Sharabi told BBC News about his hostage ordeal and his determination to live life despite his loss.
Former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi told the BBC last week that he was "very worried" Trump's peace plan will not happen
Image source, Getty ImagesSome more now from Keir Starmer, who earlier urged students not to join pro-Palestinian protests, saying it was "un-British" to hold demonstrations on the same day marking two years since the 7 October attack.
In a statement issued a short while ago, the prime minister calls the deadly Hamas-led attack "horrifying", adding that even two years on, "time does not diminish the evil we saw that day".
"But back here in the UK, our Jewish communities have also endured rising antisemitism on our streets," he says before recalling the recent deadly Manchester synagogue attack, which occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.
"This is a stain on who we are, and this country will always stand tall and united against those who wish harm and hatred upon Jewish communities," Starmer says.
"Our priority in the Middle East remains the same – release the hostages. Surge aid into Gaza. And a ceasefire that can lead to a lasting and just peace as a step towards a Two-State solution," the PM says.