New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted on X today—the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre—a message that acknowledged Hamas’s terror attack but immediately pivoted to accusing Israel of “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “war crimes” while demanding an end to American military aid.
In the post, Mamdani called October 7 a “profoundly painful” day for many New Yorkers and noted that Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 people.
This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. 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.
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. 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. 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.
Three years later, we must 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.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 7, 2026
But Mamdani then wrote that “the suffering did not begin nor end that day,” accusing the Israeli government of carrying out an “ongoing genocide” in Gaza. He claimed tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed during the fighting and that the United States remains complicit through the military aid it provides to Israel.
Mamdani called for an end to what he termed “occupation and apartheid” and argued for a world where all people can live “with freedom, safety, and dignity.” The post drew sharp criticism on social media, particularly for its timing on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre.
Israel consistently rejects accusations of “genocide” and “war crimes,” emphasizing that it operates against the Hamas terror organization in accordance with international law while taking steps to minimize civilian casualties, and that Hamas operates from within the civilian population and uses it as a human shield.