From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
At Nova memorial, Herzog says Israel will ‘live again’ and ‘yearns for peace’
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President Isaac Herzog attends a memorial at the site of the Nova festival massacre, and addresses the survivors and loved ones gathered at the event.
Before the ceremony, Herzog also gave a statement to international media, vowing to “dance again.”
“Here at the Nova Musical Festival, thousands of young people came to sing and to dance, to celebrate life. People of 36 nationalities, from all over the world and from Israel. They were horrifically butchered, killed, tortured, raped, and abducted into Gaza,” he says in the statement.
“We are here to tell their stories, and to remember, and reflect, and reminisce, and say to the world: we will dance again, we will live again. We are a nation in agony, but we are showing immense resilience. This whole region, which was attacked barbarically on October 7, is now rebuilding,” Herzog adds.
“We are a nation like all nations. We have the inherent right to defend ourselves and fight terror. But we yearn for peace, and we want our neighbors to live in peace as well. And there is a pathway to that by implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2301, which calls for the disarming of Hamas. This should be the international goal, as well as combating the empire of evil from Tehran,” the president says.
The Times of Israel Community.