Mamdani Oct. 7 statement accuses Israel of ‘ongoing genocide’ and ‘apartheid’

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani releases a statement marking three years since the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Mamdani mourns those killed and condemns Hamas, but the bulk of the statement is focused on Israel, accusing the Jewish state of genocide and apartheid.

“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,” Mamdani says.

“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,” he continues.

“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,” Mamdani adds.

“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,” the full statement says.

Israeli authorities strongly deny that genocide has taken place in the Gaza Strip, while the IDF says it only targets terror operatives and seeks to minimize civilian casualties, and says it facilitates the entry of food aid entering the Strip.