Ground Zero ceremony for 24th anniversary of 9/11

America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared in a wheelchair Thursday as he joined other dignitaries at an emotional ceremony honoring the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan.

Rudy — also in a heavy body brace following his car crash — joined others, including fellow former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Gov. Kathy Hogul, along with her New Jersey counterpart, Phil Murphy and FBI Director Kash Patel.

FBI Director Kash Patel was also there — while JD Vance was forced to cancel his planned visit to fly to Utah after the assassination of Charlie Kirk — as President Trump and first lady Melania Trump paid separate respects at the Pentagon.

Former FDNY Commissioner Tom Von Essen was also in attendance at the heartfelt morning remembrance at Ground Zero as New Yorkers stopped to mourn the deadliest terror attack ever to strike US soil.

“It’s amazing how the grief comes to life every year. It bubbles up to the surface every September,” said Von Essen, who was fire commissioner on 9/11.

“Sept.11 was the worst. We lost 343 firefighters. They put out to save total strangers. It shows what remarkable men they were,” Von Essen said.

A total of nearly 3,000 people were killed that fateful morning when al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center’s twin towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Hundreds of people gathered in New York City for six moments of silence Thursday morning to solemnly commemorate the key times of the attacks, including when both World Trade Center towers were struck and fell, and the times of the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93.

Family members then read the names of the fallen loved ones.

In the years since the unthinkable tragedy, the FDNY has lost more than 400 members to 9/11-related illnesses — more than the number killed during the terror attack rescue efforts itself — due to exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.

The number of total first responders and others diagnosed with 9/11-linked cancers has ballooned to 48,579 — a staggering 143% increase in five years, according to the latest data from the World Trade Center Health Program.