At separate memorials, families demand accountability as PM touts Israeli ‘strength’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised his government’s response to October 7 on Monday evening during an official state ceremony marking the first anniversary of Hamas’s brutal attack, while relatives of the victims demanded government accountability at an alternative memorial event.

Gathering in Tel Aviv for the National Memorial Ceremony for Bereaved Families, the relatives were highly critical of the government, calling for its leaders to accept responsibility for the “abandonment” of Israel’s south on the dark day of the Hamas-led atrocities.

Demanding the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the disaster, Rafi Ben Shitrit — whose son Staff Sgt. Shimon Alroy Ben Shitrit was killed on October 7 while attempting to fend off Hamas terrorists in southern Israel — said “the legacy of the fallen… demands that we conduct national soul-searching.”

“The beginning of healing comes with acceptance of responsibility,” he said to applause.

“My beloved son and other heroic soldiers took responsibility, sacrificed themselves and gave their lives. From the depths of the pained heart, out of love and concern for this country, and not for any political reason, I call from this stage for the formation of a state commission of inquiry, to investigate deeply and extensively the disaster of October 7.”

Netanyahu has resisted calls for such a probe, saying any investigations should wait for the end of the war. Critics say he is attempting to stave off and limit the scope and authority of an investigation, fearing it could hold him personally responsible for failing to prevent the Hamas invasion and slaughter.

The families of the hostages and other victims of October 7 put together the event at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park as an alternative to the official state memorial organized by Transportation Minister Regev, stating that the government should not be overseeing a ceremony marking its failures a year ago.

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’s terror onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 seized as hostages. The ceremony was pre-recorded, reportedly to prevent any heckling or deviations from the script.

Some 40,000 people had initially planned to go to the unofficial event, but only some 2,000 were in attendance due to IDF Home Front Command restrictions amid the ongoing threat of rocket attacks.

According to national broadcaster Kan, during a cabinet meeting on Monday, Regev asked about the possibility of changing the name of the alternative “national” ceremony in order to avoid confusion, sparking an angry reaction from Netanyahu.

Several parents at the ceremony talked about their children who were killed on October 7, including surveillance soldier Hadar Miriam Cohen, whose father said that he was speaking as a representative of the 16 young female surveillance soldiers killed on that Saturday.

“We are their voices,” he said, “and I want everyone to listen to these daughters who are crying to us from under the earth. With what’s left of us, we will make sure that the responsibility is taken.”

In a video broadcast at the event, Yuval Sharvit Trabelsi, who survived the Nova massacre but lost her husband Mor there, recounted witnessing rape while trying to evade Hamas terrorists.

“We saw murder, kidnappings, but the hardest of them all was rape,” she said. “I have never heard screams for help like the ones I heard from that woman.”

She went on to recount how she smeared herself with her husband’s blood so that the terrorists would think she was dead.

One of the final speakers at the Bereaved Families Ceremony was Jonathan Shamriz, the bereaved brother who organized the ceremony. He spoke about his beloved younger brother Alon Shamriz, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and accidentally killed by IDF troops on December 15 along with Yotam Haim and Samar Tlalka when trying to escape captivity.

Wearing a white t-shirt printed with the name of his devastated kibbutz, Kfar Aza, and a yellow ribbon, Shamriz recalled being in the shelter with his family, holding the door closed against terrorists with a kitchen knife in his hand, receiving updates on his phone about the massacre taking place.

“It was a day without an army, without a state — a day where all we had was ourselves, the citizens. This is what abandonment looks like,” said Shamriz. “Instead of standing here as multitudes of the people of Israel, united, we stand here waiting for the next siren. Instead of a state inquiry commission being established to investigate this colossal failure, we are asking the questions ourselves without getting any answers.”

“There is no personal example, no vision, no leadership, no accountability,” he said to applause from the audience.

Post-October 7 achievements

The tone of the official state ceremony, which started almost immediately after end of the civilian event, differed sharply.

While the prerecorded event, which was in style reminiscent of an Apple keynote, featured survivors and bereaved parents discussing the pain of their losses, it also focused on reasons for optimism — with Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog touting the nation’s post-October 7 accomplishments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNbkJyjD5E

While October 7 was a day of indescribable sorrow for the country, “we were not defeated,” the prime minister declared.

“We have mobilized enormous spiritual power. We have defined the goals of the war and we are achieving them: toppling the rule of Hamas; bringing all our hostages home, both alive and dead, is a sacred mission that we will not let go of until we achieve it; thwarting any future threat from Gaza to Israel; and returning the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes.”

In an apparent repudiation of hostage families’ longstanding calls for a hostage-for-ceasefire deal, Netanyahu claimed that in every meeting he and his wife have held with soldiers, the wounded and the bereaved, they have heard “the same message again and again: the campaign must not be stopped prematurely.”

“As long as the enemy threatens our existence and the peace of our country we will continue to fight. As long as our hostages are in Gaza we will continue to fight. We will not give up any of them. I will not give up. As long as our citizens have not returned to their homes safely we will continue to fight,” he insisted.

Promising to rebuild “on a much larger scale,” Netanyahu stated that “October 7 will symbolize for generations the price of our revival, and it will express for generations the magnitude of our determination and the strength of our spirit.”

“Together we will continue to fight, and together — with God’s grace — we will win,” he concluded.

While Netanyahu again did not take responsibility for failing to prevent the October 7 onslaught, earlier in the day two members of his cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — apologized for the government’s failures.

Asked during a livestream by the Ynet news site if he wanted to ask for forgiveness, Smotrich expressed regret, stating that “there is a lot for which [to apologize] and to whom [to do so].”

“The State of Israel that we all love and appreciate was not there for dozens of hours for many of its citizens who hid themselves in shelters, closets and attics,” he said.

Gallant, meanwhile, tweeted on Monday evening that on October 7 “we failed in our mission to protect the residents of the south” and that “it is our duty to learn the lessons, to incorporate them into our actions and to make sure that there will never be such a heavy disaster.”

Herzog also appeared to aim veiled criticism at Netanyahu during the ceremony, stating that “for a year now, in an abominable crime against humanity, our brothers and sisters have been held captive by murderers; and their voices cry out to us from beneath the earth — not far from here — pleading.”

“The sanctity of life, which flows in our veins as a nation, obligates us, especially the leadership, to fulfill the highest human, Jewish, and Israeli commandment: to bring them home. Some for recovery and homecoming, and some for a fitting burial,” he declared.

However, 2024 has also “been a year in which we are filled to the brim with faith and pride,” Herzog stated, calling it “a year of witnessing the civil and military heroism of men and women who, with unimaginable resourcefulness and dedication, saved lives, families and communities.”

Praising the “indomitable Israeli spirit,” Herzog promised that “we will continue to build, and we will reap with joy what we have sown in tears.”

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.