October 7 changed their lives. Now they are running for office

The Knesset is Israel’s parliament and national lawmaking body. Its elected members debate and pass laws, examine government decisions, and represent voters. Because Israel’s government depends on parliamentary support, a Knesset seat can also help a party join or build a governing coalition. That makes parliamentary elections central to national leadership.

For example, Noam Tibon is running after rescuing his family and other residents during the October 7 attack. He says he can no longer “sit on the fence” and wants to help drive Benjamin Netanyahu from power. If elected, he could vote on laws, challenge ministers, and support or oppose a coalition through his party.

A seat does not automatically make someone prime minister. It gives the politician influence inside the Knesset, while parties negotiate to assemble enough support for a government. In this election, candidates shaped by October 7 are turning personal loss and military experience into parliamentary campaigns.

The article describes at least nine candidates whose political decisions grew from direct experiences of October 7. They include survivors of the attack, relatives who lost loved ones, rescuers who fought militants, and people campaigning for relatives held hostage. Their common thread is that a national disaster became a personal reason to seek political power.

Noam Tibon is the clearest rescuer. He drove from Tel Aviv, joined an elite commando unit, and fought through Nahal Oz to save his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. Shira Shapira is a bereaved mother. Her son Aner died protecting people in a shelter at the Nova festival after throwing back grenades.

Danny Rahamim survived the attack in Nahal Oz with his wife, Siobhan. The article does not identify him as a candidate, but it presents his experience as part of the community’s political reckoning. It says hostage advocates are also running, without naming them in the supplied text.

The attack’s scale explains why it became a defining political event. Hamas terrorists crossed the border on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. The violence affected families, communities, soldiers, and survivors, turning security and government responsibility into urgent election issues.

Nahal Oz suffered especially heavily. Fifteen kibbutz members were killed and eight were taken hostage. Noam Tibon then fought alongside an elite commando unit to retake the kibbutz and rescue relatives. At the Nova festival, Aner Shapira threw back at least 10 grenades before he was killed, saving people sheltering with him.

The article states that at least nine Israelis running for office were drawn into politics by October 7. It does not provide a complete list of those candidates. Their campaigns show how the death toll, hostage crisis, and failures of protection continue to shape Israel’s political choices.

The military’s delayed response became political because residents expected the state to protect a community on Israel’s border. Danny Rahamim and his wife spent a day trapped while Hamas fighters moved around Nahal Oz and shot people. Fifteen residents were killed, while eight were taken hostage. Rahamim says there was no sign of the supposedly mighty army as the attack unfolded.

Noam Tibon’s actions made the contrast especially powerful. He drove from Tel Aviv with only a pistol, joined an elite commando unit, and fought in close quarters to reach his son’s family. His intervention helped save lives and retake the kibbutz. The story made personal courage stand against institutional failure.

Tibon now says October 7 changed Israel forever and that he must “jump into the mud.” He is running to help remove Benjamin Netanyahu and put Israel “on track again.” Thus, the military failure became a question of accountability, leadership, and whether voters should replace those in power.

The kibbutz movement shaped Nahal Oz as both a community and a frontier. Danny Rahamim was attracted to its ideal of shared life, where money mattered less than community. Kibbutzim also helped entrench Israel’s boundaries. Nahal Oz, founded in 1951, faced attacks from across Gaza, only 750 metres away.

For years, Rahamim still crossed into Gaza to buy jewellery, eat hummus, and visit Palestinian friends. The First Intifada in the late 1980s, Hamas’s emergence, and construction of a barbed-wire fence largely ended that contact. A 2014 Hamas mortar attack then killed a four-year-old kibbutz boy, yet Rahamim remained committed to peace activism.

October 7 transformed that history again. Hamas terrorists entered Nahal Oz, killing 15 residents and taking eight hostage. The community’s mix of idealism, proximity, former connection, and repeated violence helps explain why security failures and relations with Palestinians became deeply personal political issues.

Benjamin Netanyahu is identified in the article as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and the leader whom October 7 candidates want to challenge. Noam Tibon says Netanyahu controls the country and is taking it “to hell.” Tibon is running with Together, a party led by former prime ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.

Together combines Lapid’s centrist politics with Bennett’s right-wing background. Its stated political change, as described here, is leadership-focused: drive Netanyahu from power and get Israel back on track. The supplied article does not detail a full Together policy programme, so broader promised reforms cannot be specified from this text.

Shira Shapira is running for Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party. She felt connected to Eisenkot because his son also died serving in Gaza. The article says opposition leaders vowed to establish a far-reaching commission, but the sentence is cut off, so its exact scope and further changes are not stated.

Israel uses a parliamentary system. Voters elect the 120-member Knesset through nationwide proportional representation, with parties receiving seats according to their vote share. They do not directly elect the prime minister. After an election, the president asks a politician to form a government, usually the person most able to assemble majority support in the Knesset.

That support normally comes through a coalition of parties. A prime minister therefore needs partners to pass laws, approve a budget, and survive political challenges. For example, Together and Yashar are presented as opposition parties seeking to change the government’s leadership after October 7. Their influence would depend on how many Knesset seats they win and whom they can work with.

Voters can replace the government by giving different parties enough seats to form a new coalition. A government can also lose its parliamentary support, leading to political negotiations or fresh elections. These system details are established background and are not explained in the supplied article itself.