Three years after the October 7 attacks, Hadassah Medical Center, the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem (MOTJ), bereaved families and forensic experts have come together for the First International Symposium: Lessons Learned from October 7. Their shared mission to document the atrocities, honor the victims and ensure the world understands the scale and nature of the attempt to annihilate the Israeli people was the major theme of the confab. The symposium, which opened Tuesday at MOTJ, brought these forensic findings before an international audience, while families called for the evidence to be shared with the world.
The two-day conference was organized by Dr. Ira Titunik and Prof. Esi Sharon of Hadassah, in partnership with Granit Almog-Bareket, director of MOTJ’s Leadership Academy.
For MOTJ, the symposium builds on its work to preserve the memory of October 7 through its exhibition 06:29: From Darkness to Light which tells the story of the day from the perspective of brave women who were on the ground. During the conference, participants visited the exhibit and were visibly moved by the experience.
Jonathan “Yoni” Riss, Managing Director at MOTJ, said. “As a museum that serves as a beacon for tolerance, peace, conflict resolution, and dialogue – we are committed to shedding light on the heavy toll of Hamas' terrorism. The horrors that came out of the forensic findings, which will be exposed here today, some for the first time, obligate us to hold up a mirror to the entire world and reveal the atrocities that unfolded on that bloody day. We are here with a clear mission and a powerful message to the entire world – Never Again begins today.”
For Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni was killed at the Nahal Oz military base, the forensic evidence captures the horror of that day in details that are difficult to comprehend.
“I call from this stage on everyone involved in explaining Israel's story and the atrocities of October 7 to the world: Take the difficult autopsy reports and share them with the rest of the world so people can understand what happened here and the magnitude of the atrocities committed by Hamas in Gaza,” Eshel said. “Sometimes all that remains is a single hair, sometimes the tip of a fingernail, and sometimes a lump of charcoal. The entire world needs to see and hear.”
Orly Cohen, whose son Amit was murdered at the Nova music festival alongside his partner, Norelle Mansouri, and her sister Roya, also addressed the conference, thanking forensic medicine and identification professionals for their work.
“The certainty you gave us was a gift beyond words. In a world that had fallen apart in an instant, it was the first anchor that allowed us to begin facing reality. Thank you for your dedication, professionalism, sensitivity, and for seeing the human being behind every task,” Cohen said.
Prof. Chen Kugel, director of Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, described how identification began without a definitive list of missing people. Some remains arrived so severely burned that bone fragments crumbled when touched. Kugel also described findings that he said indicated the deliberate use of flammable materials to intensify fires and destroy bodies.
“In some places, flammable materials were added to create a kind of crematorium,” Kugel said, echoing memories of the Holocaust.
Dr. Nurit Bublil of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine discussed the challenges of analyzing DNA exposed to temperatures exceeding 800°C. In some cases, laboratories received only two bones in a bag, requiring advanced techniques and painstaking cross-referencing to identify the victims.
What united the speakers was the extraordinary professionalism and composure they brought to an unimaginable task, working amid devastation and uncertainty while knowing that every identification meant answers for a family waiting in anguish.
New York-based Dr. Titunik a forensic odontologist with more than 40 years of experience in forensic medicine and human identification, said, “I wanted people to come to Jerusalem, not simply join a conference over Zoom. I wanted them to meet the forensic scientists and police officers, hear firsthand what they had faced and understand the magnitude of what happened here on October 7. I wanted them to see how quickly and accurately Israel’s forensic community and police worked under unimaginable conditions to identify the victims and bring answers to their families”
The partnership with Hadassah connects forensic documentation with public remembrance. For families, the evidence can offer answers amid devastating uncertainty; while for the professionals who carried out the identification effort, sharing their knowledge can help others confronting future catastrophic events.
Today, three years after October 7, the responsibility extends beyond identifying the dead. It means preserving the evidence, sharing the findings and ensuring the world remembers the people behind them.
Written in collaboration with the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem