From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Herzog calls for probe into October 7 failures ‘worthy’ of day’s victims
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Speaking at a state ceremony commemorating the civilian victims of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, President Isaac Herzog asks forgiveness on behalf of the State of Israel for the “failure” to protect its citizens on that day, calling for a probe to “investigate the disaster thoroughly.”
In his second address today at the Har Herzl military cemetery, following this morning’s ceremony held for fallen soldiers during the war in Gaza, Herzog tells bereaved families of civilian victims that “nothing can heal your world that was destroyed.”
“All that is left for me is to embrace you, to ask forgiveness on behalf of the State of Israel – for the failure and for not having defended you on that dreadful day – and to hope, on behalf of an entire people, that you will be granted relief and consolation, and that we will investigate the disaster thoroughly, broadly and comprehensively, and be worthy of your sacrifice,” he says.
Herzog’s comments come as the government continues to vigorously oppose the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, originally because such an inquiry could not be conducted while Israel was at war, but later due to arguments by several cabinet ministers that such a commission would be biased against the government. On Wednesday, the High Court of Justice told the government that there is “no real argument” against the need to establish such an inquiry.
Continuing his speech, Herzog reiterates his call for national unity, saying: “In the last two years we have learned well that we are sisters and brothers… this brotherhood is the life force that pulses within us.”
“We learned that without it we may be in real existential danger… It is not possible — simply not possible – that even now, as we bury our abducted dead, the ones returning to us from [Hamas captivity], the spirit of factionalism, polarization and hatred rises its ugly head again. We must remember: This people and this state are greater than any one of us.”
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