From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
In 1st, Smotrich visits Oct. 7-ravaged Nir Oz, says he’s been feeling ‘responsibility and guilt’
Michael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich paid a visit today to Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the Israeli communities hit the worst in Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and met families of local hostages as well as former captives, Smotrich’s office and Nir Oz say in a joint statement.
It is Smotrich’s first visit to Nir Oz, more than 13 months after Palestinian terrorists rampaged there, killing or kidnapping 117 out of its 400 residents. There are still 29 hostages from Nir Oz held captive in Gaza.
After visiting torched and destroyed homes where atrocities were committed that day and hearing the concerns and accusations of hostage relatives, Smotrich meets Nir Oz officials, promises to do whatever he can to help rebuild the community, and talks about the guilt and feeling of responsibility he has been feeling regarding the failure to prevent the massacre.
“I thank you for opening your door and your heart, this isn’t taken for granted,” he says. “This isn’t trivial, I’m not sure that in your shoes I would have been able to invite, welcome and look in the eyes of someone who after all is among those responsible for a horrific failure.”
“On a personal level, I’ve been living it and for a year I’ve been going to sleep with this and getting up in the morning with this,” he adds. “This is a different experience to yours, but [I’ve been living] with the feeling of responsibility and guilt, and mainly with the commitment to fixing whatever we can.”
The hardline minister, who has been attacked by many relatives of hostages for his opposition to most proposed deals to free their loved ones, expresses his appreciation of the residents of Israeli kibbutzim before the attack and of their “nobility” and resolve to rebuild their shattered community and return.
“We are committed to returning the hostages home,” Smotrich says.
While Smotrich has previously acknowledged responsibility for the failures before and during the October 7 attack, today is the first time he has spoken about feeling guilt.
On the contrary, in June he told the Kan public broadcaster that “the massacre has nothing to do with me, I’m not guilty,” casting the failure as solely a military and intelligence one.
