The Hostage Square in Tel Aviv has become official: the city commemorated October 7

The square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is now officially called “Hostage Square” — כיכר החטופים. For most Israelis, the only new thing here is the word “officially”: this name appeared in public life almost immediately after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, and has long become more understandable than any previous designation of the place.

On August 11, 2026, a city plaque with the new name was unveiled in Tel Aviv. But the decision did not arise overnight: in July, it was first considered by the municipal naming commission and then approved by the city council.

Elena Gunko writes for NANews about Israel, Ukraine, and how major historical events transition from news feeds to human memory. In this story, such a transition is crucial: the name was first invented and adopted by society itself, and almost three years later, the city recognized the established reality. For this material, NANews verified the chronology with documents from the Tel Aviv–Jaffa municipality, materials from the Hostage Families Forum, and open data on the return of the last abducted person.

What exactly happened in Tel Aviv

The official procedure began back in July. On July 6, 2026, the municipal naming commission supported Mayor Ron Huldai’s proposal to name the square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art “Hostage Square.” On July 13, the city council unanimously approved the recommendation.

The council’s protocol recorded the main explanation: in the years following October 7, this name had already firmly entered public discourse, and the square itself had become a national symbol of hope, solidarity, and the struggle for the return of the abducted.

Therefore, the August unveiling of the plaque was not an ordinary renaming of a street or square. The municipality effectively legally enshrined a name that had already been chosen by thousands of people.

The square was first named by the Israelis themselves

After October 7, the space in front of the museum quickly ceased to be perceived simply as a city square. Relatives of the abducted gathered here, tents of families and kibbutzim appeared, photos of people taken by terrorists to Gaza, yellow ribbons, stages, installations, and meeting places.

The Hostage Families Forum turned the square into a permanent point of public pressure and simultaneously a place where one could come not only for a rally. Here, they held Kabbalat Shabbat, family meetings, speeches by freed hostages, solidarity actions, and events for foreign delegations.

And gradually, a rare phenomenon for a modern city occurred: there was no official decision yet, but the name already existed. In Israel, there was no need to explain what the phrase “meet at Hostage Square” meant.

NANews — News of Israel had already shown this square as part of the living Israeli reality in Andrey Tsaplienko’s report from Israel. There, it was not a decoration near the museum, but a place where people continued to talk about October 7 years after the attack itself.

Ran Gwili and the point after which everything changed

There is another date without which the city’s current decision loses half its meaning: January 26, 2026.

On this day, the remains of Ran Gwili — the last of those abducted on October 7 who was still in Gaza — were returned to Israel. The 24-year-old special police officer was on sick leave due to a shoulder injury on the morning of October 7, but after the attack on the south of the country began, he went to help his comrades.

Gwili participated in battles in the area of Kibbutz Alumim and died. His body was taken to Gaza by terrorists. He returned home after 843 days.

For the square, this became a fundamental boundary. The place, created around the demand “bring them home,” faced a new question: what should happen to it when there is no one left to bring back?

Tel Aviv’s answer is now official — the square remains.

From the demand to bring people back — to the memory of October 7

This changes the very function of the space. While the hostages were in Gaza, the square was primarily a demand to the state, negotiators, Israel’s allies, and the whole world: one cannot get used to the fact that people remain in captivity.

Now this demand has become history, but its content has not disappeared.

In the city council’s explanation, this transition is particularly important. The square should preserve the memory not only of the terrorist attack and the abduction of people but also of how Israeli society reacted: about families, volunteers, tens of thousands who came to rallies, people who stood by even when they did not personally know a single hostage.

This is different from a monument created decades later. Here, memory first arose — and only then did the official plaque appear.

When NANews — News of Israel wrote about what a thousand days after October 7 mean for the country, the question was precisely this: can the date remain a living human memory and not turn into just another calendar number. The story of Hostage Square shows one possible answer.

Why this story is important for Israel — and understandable to Ukrainians

For Israel, Tel Aviv’s decision fixes a rather unusual order of memory emergence. The state did not invent the symbol from above. People first created the place, language, and rituals around it themselves — and only after the hostage story ended did the municipality recognize this public choice.

For a reader with Ukrainian roots, there is also a recognizable mechanism here, although comparing the tragedies themselves directly would be incorrect. After major upheavals, societies often begin to preserve memory before official decisions appear: photos, spontaneous memorials, place names, familiar routes, and words whose meaning is understood without explanation arise.

That is why Elena Gunko’s authorial perspective is at the intersection of two topics she regularly writes about: Israel after October 7 and the experience of Ukraine, where the war also constantly changes society’s attitude towards memory, the deceased, and urban space.

But the fact remains Israeli and very specific: the name כיכר החטופים was not born in an official’s office.

What will remain on the map of Tel Aviv now

The official name does not mean that the square must forever remain as it was in the most difficult months. Temporary tents will disappear, installations will change, and the usual life of the museum and surrounding streets will return. Urban space will inevitably change.

But two words will remain on the map — “Hostage Square”.

Years later, someone might ask why the square near the Tel Aviv Museum is called that. And the answer will require telling not just one news story, but the entire chain: the terrorist attack on October 7, 251 abducted, families who refused to disappear from public space, rallies and waiting, the return of the living, the return of the dead, and 843 days until Ran Gwili’s return.

Therefore, Tel Aviv’s decision is difficult to reduce to a renaming. The city officially preserved the name of a place that Israelis themselves named back when they did not know how the hostage story would end.

Now the end of this story is known. The name remains.