Hamas Chants Reported as Protesters Disrupt New York October 7 Vigil
The gathering in Union Square mourned victims of October 7 and Palestinians killed in Gaza. Some protesters displayed Hamas symbols and a portrait of Yahya Sinwar.
Protesters disrupted an October 7, 2026, memorial gathering in Manhattan’s Union Square, with reports and recordings documenting expressions of support for Hamas. The Times of Israel and Jewish Insider reported chants of “Long live Hamas,” while JTA’s reporting and photographs documented a Hamas flag and an image of Yahya Sinwar.
The event, organised by Israelis for Peace, marked the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre in southern Israel. It also mourned Palestinians killed during the subsequent war in Gaza. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended but did not address the gathering, according to reports from the scene.
A march reaches a memorial
Pro Palestinian demonstrators had gathered near City Hall before moving toward Union Square. The Times of Israel’s account described some marchers carrying Hamas and Hezbollah flags or images of terrorist leaders. Those observations concerned specific participants, not every person in the march.
At Union Square, the confrontation reached a gathering intended to bring Israelis and others together in mourning. JTA described the organisers as Israeli activists opposed to the occupation. Support for a Palestinian cause and support for Hamas were therefore not interchangeable positions within the competing groups present.
Photographic evidence of a Hamas flag and Sinwar’s portrait gives the story a basis beyond interpretations of crowd noise. Sinwar was a central figure in the October 7 attack, in which about 1,200 people were murdered and 251 abducted, according to Israeli figures.
What the recordings support
Fox News published footage of the confrontation on October 7. Its accessible video page did not supply a verified transcript of the chant, so the words are attributed here to the separate published reports rather than inferred from Fox’s page description.
Videographer network FreedomNewsTV also described its contemporaneous recording as capturing the chant. Together with the reporting from the scene, that supports a specific account of pro Hamas expressions during the disruption. It does not establish that the entire crowd joined in or shared a single position.
The presence of terrorist symbols at a memorial for victims added a direct confrontation over what the anniversary represented. The evidence concerns visible displays and reported speech; it does not establish membership in Hamas or a criminal charge against an unidentified participant.
The mayor’s response
Asked about the evening on October 8, Mamdani said he was proud to have attended and described listening to testimony from bereaved families. Jewish Insider reported that he did not condemn the hecklers when questioned, instead treating protest against him as part of his role as mayor.
The disagreement was not simply between supporters and opponents of Israel’s government. A vigil organised by Israeli peace activists became the target of protesters, some of whom openly invoked Hamas. That distinction is essential to understanding why the disruption drew attention beyond the usual confrontation over the Gaza war.
