Marking one year since Nov. 2023 hostage release, Herzog says Israel still has a ‘bleeding, open wound’

By Lazar Berman

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

24 November 2024, 5:08 pm

5 Edit

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

President Isaac Herzog speaks at an event marking one year since hostages were released from Gaza during a one-week ceasefire with the Hamas terror group, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, November 24, 2024. (Haim Zach/GPO)

At an event marking one year since the first group of hostages was released from Gaza as part of a weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, President Isaac Herzog says Israel is “at a critical point.”

Every day that the hostages are not back in Israel “is a failure,” he emphasizes.

“We must understand and internalize that if we do not bring them home, we will be left with a bleeding, open wound that will forever burn our souls as a society and as a nation.”

Herzog says he said as much in recent conversations with incoming US president Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in the White House.