NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Criticized for ‘Insulting’ October 7 Post on 3rd Anniversary of Hamas Attack

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is reflecting on the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which included the massacre at the Nova Music Festival and left about 1,200 people dead.

Mamdani, 34, took to X on Wednesday to share a statement marking the third anniversary of the attack, during which 251 people were also taken hostage.

Calling the day “profoundly painful” for so many New Yorkers, Mamdani detailed the “horrific war crimes” committed by Hamas that day before addressing the destruction inflicted on Gaza and across Palestine in the three years that followed.

“On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,” Mamdani began. “The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — including more than 21,000 children.”

Touching on the ceasefire that was implemented in October 2025, Mamdani detailed the bloodshed the Palestinian people have experienced since, with the ongoing violence labeled by many as a “genocide.”

“Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing,” he continued. “Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.”

Mamdani called on New Yorkers to “refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment,” adding that the best way to honor those who lost their lives on October 7 and in the days since is to “fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.”

While Mamdani’s statement was a powerful one, it was met with a mixed response online, with many slamming the Democratic Socialist mayor for focusing too much on Gaza rather than on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

“Your October 7 statement is around 200 words long. The Israelis murdered and kidnapped that day get fewer than a quarter of them,” one user wrote. “Imagine writing an anniversary statement about a massacre and making the victims a supporting detail. So Mr. Mayor, go take your insulting words and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine.”

Another accused the mayor of being unsupportive of his Jewish constituents.

“Why not just send the first paragraph. For once show some support for your Jewish constituents. It’s why 2/3 of Jewish NYC residents are against you,” the user posted.

“Notice that Mamdani used the third anniversary of October 7 to nod at the massacre, then spend the rest of the post calling Israel genocidal. Disgraceful mayor,” another wrote.

Others, meanwhile, proceeded to call Mamdani “antisemitic” and an “Islamist,” referencing his Muslim faith.

And though the post sparked outrage, Mamdani’s views on Gaza are nothing new, with the mayor long advocating for an end to the violence in the region.