‘Enough with the lies’: Former hostage, Nova festival survivor, and bereaved father call for answers about Oct. 7

A former hostage, a survivor of the Nova music festival, and a bereaved father speak at the start of the second night of the “Sukkah of the Failure” gathering at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

The three-day event during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday has been organized by a group of families of victims of the October 7, 2023, attack to present what they say is the truth of what happened in the weeks preceding the Hamas-led assault.

Gabriela Leimberg, taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak with her daughter, her sister, her sister’s partner and her brother — all of whom eventually returned to Israel — says their terrorist captors told them they should return to Argentina, where they immigrated from decades ago, because there would be another event like October 7 down the line.

“The next massacre can’t be avoided if there is no investigation as to what happened,” says Leimberg.

“Everyone called to warn Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” she says, asking, “How is it that he didn’t gather everyone and didn’t protect us? You should have been our protector.”

“Next time, it could be you at friends or at a party,” says Leimberg, who calls for everyone who had their hand on the wheel on October 7 to go home, to the applause of the hundreds-strong crowd.

“He just wants to be prime minister for the next four years,” she says of Netanyahu, to boos from attendees.

A Nova festival survivor, Yasmin Porat, who fled to Kibbutz Beeri on October 7 and survived the attack there as well, says her life has not returned and it will not, until the truths are told.

The voice of Michel Illouz, father of slain hostage Guy Illouz, resonates in the square as he plays a recording of his son telling him he loves him after he was shot and hiding from terrorists.

“Enough with the lies!” says Illouz.

“How small can you be,” he says. “Bibi, the whole world called you, and you did nothing.”

“This government cannot have a place any longer,” says Illouz, as the crowd applauds.