Hundreds gather for Tel Aviv protest memorial ceremony demanding state Oct. 7 probe

Hundreds of people gather at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square for a protest memorial ceremony organized by the October Council, a group of relatives of October 7 victims, who demand a state commission of inquiry into the security debacle leading to the Hamas-led onslaught in 2023.

The ceremony is set to feature speeches from relatives of some of the Israelis who were abducted to Gaza that day and later killed in captivity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected such a commission — Israel’s highest investigative authority — because it is led by the judiciary, which he claims would be biased against him because of his government’s controversial bid to weaken the courts.

The ceremony at Habima Square comes ahead of Israel’s official Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, which will begin Monday night.

The ceremony is taking place under the title Yishkach (“forget”), a play on the Yizkor (“remember”) adjuration that is typically read at Memorial Day ceremonies.

On one side of the square, the names of dozens of soldiers killed since the October 7 attack are displayed on a small stage, with candles assembled in the shape of the numbers 7.10, the date of the attack.

Signs on the stage read: “We painfully and sorrowfully say goodbye to the holy, heroic IDF soldiers who fell in vain in the war to lengthen the time in office of the defendant,” referring to Netanyahu, who is standing trial on graft charges.