In Passover message, Netanyahu notes many families to mark festival with ’empty chairs’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a Passover video message, noting that families of hostages and fallen and seriously injured soldiers will be marking the festival with “empty chairs.”

“But from this void, the clear voice of our fallen heroes rises like the last message of the late Elkana Vizel, who wrote to his family: ‘Do not be sad when you say goodbye to me. Sing and strengthen each other, because we are the generation of redemption,” Netanyahu says.

The premier adds that, “We are the generation of revival, the generation of victory. Together we will return our hostages, together we will defeat our enemies, together we will embrace the injured and together we will bow our heads to remember the fallen.”

“On October 7, there were those who believed we would drown in the sea by the enemy armies. But not only did we not drown, we stood as one, and with a strong and outstretched hand we broke the axis of evil,” he says.

“The entire world looks in amazement at our ancient people, who time and again prevail over those who seek to kill us,” he says, adding that both God and a fighting spirit save the Jewish people throughout the generations.