After 40,000 planned to attend, alternative Oct. 7 memorial limited to 2,000 people
Organizers say wartime cap on gatherings will limit crowd, invite public to watch in their own communities; Herzog says Israel can’t fully heal while hostages remain in Gaza
An unofficial commemoration marking a year since Hamas’s October 7 massacre will be held with a limited crowd made up of families of the victims due to IDF Home Front Command restrictions currently in place that prevent large gatherings amid the recent fighting with Hezbollah, its organizers said Saturday.
The commemoration, which was organized by the families, is set to be held at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park at 7 p.m. on Monday and will be broadcast on Israeli television stations and dozens of foreign broadcast networks.
Dozens of cities in Israel and around the world will also host screenings of the event.
“The ceremony is expected to be difficult and painful to watch, and we ask that the general public obey the life-saving instructions and watch it together with their loved ones in the various communities,” the organizers said in a statement.
Currently, the IDF Home Front Command limits gatherings to up to 2,000 people in Tel Aviv due to the ongoing threat of rocket attacks. Organizers said last month that all 40,000 tickets to the event had been reserved within eight hours of them being released.
Yonatan Shamriz, whose brother Alon was mistakenly killed by IDF troops in December along with two other hostages, apologized to those who contributed to the ceremony, and hoped for “better days when everyone can stand together without restrictions and without divisions.”
The event will be co-emceed by writer, actor and comedian Hanoch Daum and actress and TV host Rotem Sela. Artists Aviv Gefen, Agam Buhbut, Eden Hasson, Ran Danker, Shlomo Artzi and others will perform at the event.
Meanwhile, a pre-recorded state memorial is expected to air at 9:15 p.m. that evening.
Families of hostages and other victims of October 7 have fumed at the government’s decision to charge Transportation Minister Miri Regev with organizing that event.
Several Gaza border communities have accused the government of using the official ceremony to avoid responsibility for the role it played in failing to prevent Hamas terror assault, and for failing the communities in the aftermath of the massacre. Many of them announced that they would not participate in Regev’s ceremony.
The minister has refused a number of compromise proposals to solve the dispute. Regev dismissed the criticism as “noise” and compared the idea of holding memorial ceremonies other than the official one to a contentious annual joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony held annually on Memorial Day, which is seen by right-wing critics as equating terror victims with slain assailants, or criticized for equating Israeli and Palestinian pain.
‘Our wounds still cannot fully heal’
President Isaac Herzog said Saturday that Israel remains wounded by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, with 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza and residents displaced by ongoing fighting.
“Our wounds still cannot fully heal because they are ongoing. Because hostages are still being tortured, executed, and dying in captivity,” the president said in a statement broadcast to mark a full year since the Hamas onslaught.
He also said Iran remains an “ongoing threat” to Israel, as the region waits for Jerusalem’s response to Tuesday’s Iranian ballistic missile attack.
“In many senses, we are still living the aftermath of October 7… It is in the ongoing threat to the Jewish state by Iran and its terror proxies, who are blinded by hatred and bent on the destruction of our one and only Jewish nation-state,” Herzog said.
Monday marks one year since the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught, in which Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The Times of Israel Community.