Without return of hostages Israel can never be whole — Herzog

Israel will only be able to heal from October 7 once the hostages kidnapped that day are freed from captivity, President Isaac Herzog says after laying a wreath at the annual state memorial ceremony for terror victims at Mount Herzl.

“This recovery, necessary for all of us — as a nation and as a country — is not only about looking to the future and our building, but also about fixing the present,” he says. “And our present will not be whole, and our wound will not heal, until all the hostages return — our beloved brothers and sisters, who are in distress and captivity.”

October 7 was the “most heinous terrorist attack” in the history of the State of Israel, in which “entire families were cruelly taken from us,” he says. “The attack of 7 October was an assault on our rights and sovereignty in our homeland, in our one and only state — Israel.”

Addressing the families of victims, Herzog says that “no one one can truly understand the magnitude of the void that has opened in your lives.”

“Our role, the role of the entire people of Israel, is to support you,” Herzog says. “This of course also applies to the deep moral obligation toward the survivors of acts of hostility and terror, and to all those affected by them physically and mentally, in need of support, assistance, accompaniment, resources, knowledge, and care from all of us in order to try to recover and return to life.”