The Israeli government presented itself as combative and determined on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre. But there are also doubts and frustration in the country.
At the beginning of today’s Cabinet meeting, a government secretary recited a Jewish prayer that invoked God’s blessing on the hostages, on the soldiers and on the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack. The rather celebratory mood quickly changed to combative. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined.
“We will strike back in a way the enemy has never known before and we will exact a price from him that he has never known,” Netanyahu said. Israel would win. “We have been fighting since that black day. This is a war for our existence. It is our war of resurrection,” he explains further.
Expert doubts Government representation
They are pithy words from a Prime Minister who has to deliver. Because none of the war goals have been achieved yet. Military experts such as former deputy national security adviser Talia Lankri have doubts about government statements that Hamas has been militarily defeated.
“If Hamas manages to fire rockets that day, and if, at the same time, there is widespread shelling from the north as far as Haifa, then it can be assumed that Hamas has both the capabilities and coordination,” Lankri said . Hamas is still in control – and that worries them much more than the rockets, she said.
“We are fighting the fight of the free world”
As the commemoration ceremony reached its climax at the Nova Music Festival site at 6:29 a.m. sharp, Hamas fired several rockets into Israel from Khan Yunis. The army responded with heavy artillery fire. It was said that this prevented a renewed threat from Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
President Izchak Herzog was also a guest at the memorial event in Re’im. After the ceremony, he met with relatives of the victims and those abducted. The Israeli head of state described the hostages still kidnapped in the Gaza Strip as a “scar of humanity.”
Herzog had a message for the allied states, where criticism of Israel’s tough military course is becoming increasingly louder. “The world must recognize and understand that it must support Israel in its fight against its enemies in order to change the course of history.” This is the only way to bring peace and a better future to the region. “We are fighting the fight of the free world,” declared Herzog.
Frustration in the kibbutz
Arrie Tzuk, a retired police officer, also held the memorial service today at his destroyed Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a Jewish communal settlement in Israel. October 7th last year wiped out all life on the kibbutz, he said, frustrated and sad. And he looked towards Gaza, because Gaza City is only a few kilometers away.
“We have a small kibbutz here. I lived there with my three children and their families. And now there are no children’s voices here. There are no people here,” Tzuk said. They would no longer accept weapons in Gaza, he said. “They will no longer have an army and no weapons. That will not happen,” added the former police officer.