Three Years After October 7: How Trauma and Fear Reshaped Israeli Politics and Society

Three years have passed since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, yet for most Israelis, that date continues to serve as the dividing line between two distinct eras of modern history. The period before that day and everything that has followed are, in the minds of many citizens, fundamentally separate chapters. What has unfolded since, according to observers, amounts to a profound transformation of Israeli society, driven by a potent mix of collective trauma, political exploitation, and an accelerating shift to the right.

The immediate human toll of the October 7 attacks was devastating. Nearly 1,200 people were killed when Hamas and other armed groups breached Israel's defenses, and roughly 250 people were taken captive into Gaza. The shock of that day was not only about the scale of loss but about what it exposed. The notion of Israeli military and technological invincibility, long a cornerstone of national confidence, crumbled in a matter of hours.

Daniel Bar-Tal, an Israeli political psychologist at Tel Aviv University, described the psychological fallout as all-encompassing. Prior to October 7, most Jewish Israelis lived largely insulated from the consequences of their military's operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, shielded by a sense of security and separation. That insulation was shattered. Bar-Tal noted that many were further shaken by revelations suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have had advance intelligence about Hamas's intentions. The result, he told Al Jazeera, was a crisis that "doesn't leave the population," disrupting nearly every facet of national life and collective psychology.

The aftermath inside Gaza proved catastrophic. Israel launched what the source describes as a genocidal war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians. The military campaign did not remain confined to Gaza alone; Israel expanded its attacks to several regional states, widening the scope of conflict and drawing international condemnation. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, a series of settler pogroms fueled by Israel's far-right further destabilized the region and deepened the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians.

The domestic political consequences within Israel have been equally dramatic. Politicians, according to analysts, seized upon the fear and trauma of October 7 to advance their own agendas, frequently directing anger and suspicion toward Palestinians as a collective. Israeli sociologist Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani argued that while the fear felt by many Israelis was genuine, political forces deliberately exploited it to dismantle decades of painstaking work in Jewish-Palestinian relations. The erosion of that groundwork, he suggested, represents a setback of enormous proportions.

Evidence of Israel's rightward lurch is abundant. Countless polls over the past three years indicate that Israeli society has moved further to the right, with mainstream newspapers openly questioning whether the political left, once the primary advocate for a two-state solution, still exists as a meaningful force. Large segments of the Israeli public continue to back the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of "terrorism" and support the ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. These positions, once considered fringe, have entered the mainstream.

A particularly striking survey conducted in May 2025 by Penn State sociologist Tamir Sorek found that an overwhelming majority of Israeli respondents supported expelling Gaza's residents. Perhaps more alarmingly, a significant minority also endorsed the "mass killing" of all residents of cities invaded by Israeli troops, drawing a parallel to the biblical account of the Israelites at Jericho. Such findings underscore how far public sentiment has shifted in a relatively short period.

Shenhav-Shahrabani characterized October 7 as an undeniable watershed in contemporary Israeli politics. The attacks and their aftermath, he said, have set the country back roughly a hundred years in terms of collective consciousness, willingness to engage with one another, and above all, mutual trust. The damage, in his assessment, will be extraordinarily difficult to repair. The sense of shared destiny that once held Israeli society together appears to have eroded under the weight of fear and polarization.

The far-right's ascendancy has been institutionalized in concrete ways. In March 2026, Israel's parliament passed a law making the death penalty a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated the legislation's passage, a moment that captured the deepening entrenchment of hardline policies within the state's legal framework. The law represents a significant departure from previous norms and has drawn widespread international criticism.

Beyond the legal and political realms, the war and its associated violence have contributed to Israel's growing isolation on the world stage. The scale of destruction in Gaza, combined with settler violence in the West Bank, has alienated much of the international community. Nations that once maintained constructive relations with Israel have grown increasingly vocal in their condemnation, and the country finds itself more diplomatically isolated than at any point in recent memory.

The transformation of Israel's labor force has also been noted, reflecting broader societal shifts set in motion by the attacks and the prolonged conflict that followed. Economic disruptions, mobilization of reservists, and changing public priorities have all left their mark. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has grappled with its own reckoning, firing commanders over October 7 failures in a bid to address accountability while the broader strategic picture remains unsettled.

For Palestinians, the past three years have brought unrelenting suffering. The genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 74,000 people, according to the source, and displaced countless others. Babies born on October 7 now face lives shaped by destruction and deprivation. The international legal and human rights communities have documented widespread abuses, while Israel's push for hangings and show trials of October 7 detainees has raised further concerns about the erosion of due process.

Taken together, these developments paint a portrait of a society deeply altered by trauma and the political forces that harnessed it. The collective fear that followed October 7 was real and profound, but its translation into far-right policies, expanded military campaigns, and the marginalization of moderate voices has reshaped Israel in ways that may prove enduring. Three years on, the question of whether the country can reverse course remains unanswered, but the weight of evidence suggests the changes are deeply entrenched and unlikely to fade soon.