New Yorkers Observe Oct. 7 Anniversary With Eye Toward Peace Talks

People gathered across Manhattan on Tuesday to observe the second anniversary of Hamas’s deadly attack against Israel with a mixture of grief, anger and muted hope as the two sides negotiated a potential end to the ensuing war that has ravaged Gaza.

Some saw the day as an occasion to mourn the more than 1,200 people killed in the attack and to remember those that Hamas held hostage. Others sought to draw focus to the plight of Gaza — where more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and those who remain face severe hunger — and to condemn Israel and those who have supported its actions there. Speakers at one vigil emphasized peace and empathy for both sides.

In Central Park on Tuesday afternoon, several hundred people assembled near the Great Lawn to pray for the captives and recite several psalms before marching while holding Israeli flags and pictures of hostages and those killed in the attack.

“I know that every one of us here still carries scars and grief from what occurred two years ago,” Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, the senior rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, said to the crowd. “But we are not here to talk about grief or about scars. We are here to say that we are still standing.”

David Kaplan was among those in the crowd. Mr. Kaplan, 53, lives in Israel and was in New York City to visit his mother. “Any opportunity that we have to show strength in unity in the face of evil is something that needs to be done,” he said.

Referring to the peace proposal now being negotiated, Mr. Kaplan, who works in the financial industry, said it was “a deal that I think we should all be willing to accept, on all sides.” He expressed skepticism about Hamas’s willingness to agree to elements of the plan, saying he believed the group wants to “lead us back to war.”