Oct. 7 ceremony organizers say all 40,000 tickets claimed in 8 hours, hope police will allow them to release more

Organizers of an October 7 ceremony say that all 40,000 tickets were reserved by members of the public within eight hours of them being released.

While the ceremony is free, police said it needed to be a ticketed event to prevent overcrowding.

Ceremony organizer Yonatan Shamriz tells Channel 12 that they hope authorities will allow them to increase capacity for the event at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.

Shamriz, whose brother Alon was mistakenly killed by IDF troops in Gaza along with two other hostages Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka, says that while the ceremony will be sad, emotional and respectful, “we want people to leave with hope.”

Shamriz emphasizes that the ceremony is a grassroots initiative and will feature people from across the religious and political spectrum.

Speeches will be made by bereaved families, former hostages, and residents of border towns. There will also be films shown and top Israeli artists will perform.

The alternative October 7 memorial ceremony is being held in addition to the state one, which has been largely boycotted by the families of hostages and residents of the Gaza border communities.

Families of hostages and other victims of October 7 have fumed at the government’s decision to charge Transportation Minister Miri Regev with organizing the state event. Regev dismissed the criticism as “noise.”