{"id":366952,"date":"2026-10-07T16:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366952\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:20:08","slug":"nyc-mayor-mamdani-on-political-tightrope-calls-oct-7-attacks-painful-war-in-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366952\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Mamdani on political tightrope calls Oct. 7 attacks ‘painful,’ war in Gaza ‘genocide’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Mamdani marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel<\/a> as he attempts to navigates a complicated political dynamic, calling the day \u201cprofoundly painful\u201d for many New Yorkers while also criticizing Israel for carrying out a \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Hamas launched a massacre in Israel<\/a>, killing around 1,200 and taking 251 hostages. The attacks prompted Israel\u2019s military offensive in Gaza to eradicate Hamas, in which some 70,000 Palestinians have been killed.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued Wednesday, Mamdani said<\/a> the Hamas attacks were \u201chorrific war crimes\u201d that are \u201cprofoundly painful\u201d for many New Yorkers while also calling out destruction in Gaza and the actions of both the Israeli and U.S. governments. The war has displaced nearly 2 million people and destroyed homes, infrastructure and other public services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,\u201d he said in a statement, concerning the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

The mayor then pivoted to the war that followed:\u00a0\u201cThe suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government\u2019s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The mayor added that the federal government must end its \u201ccomplicity\u201d in the conflict as it continues to send military aid.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who\u2019s built much of his political identity around support of Palestinian rights, has tried to navigate the complicated dynamics around the conflict in his first year in office. On Wednesday evening, he is expected to attend a vigil in honor of the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks, and then meet with Palestinian New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he has faced intense criticism from prominent Jewish groups, who have said his rhetoric about Israel fuels growing antisemitism.<\/a> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has leveled sharp attacks against Mamdani,<\/a> particularly over the mayor\u2019s assertion that the government\u2019s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States at City Hall on Friday July 3, 2026 in New York. (Anna Connors\/The New York Times via AP, Pool)<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week,\u00a0Ofir Akunis,\u00a0Israel\u2019s consul general in New York, invited the mayor<\/a> to join him in watching footage of the Oct. 7 attacks that was compiled by the Israel Defense Forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps after watching the film, you will understand why the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people is so important and why we will continue to defend ourselves at any cost,\u201d Akunis wrote in a letter to Mamdani.<\/p>\n

New York is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel as well as\u00a0thousands of Palestinians<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 so\u00a0the city has many personal ties to the conflict. But the effects of the conflict have also reverbered less directly, as antisemetic hate crimes<\/a> have climbed amid the debate over Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel as he attempts to navigates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[267,9,10,692,12,56,63,65,64,87],"class_list":["post-366952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-politics","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}