Tel Aviv, 13 May. Israel will be able to heal from October 7th only if the hostages kidnapped that day are released from captivity. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said this after laying a wreath at the annual state memorial ceremony for the victims of terrorism on Mount Herzl.
“The recovery, necessary for all of us as a nation and as a country – he added – is not only about the future and its construction, but also about fixing the present. And our present will not be complete, and our wound will not heal, until all the hostages return: our beloved brothers and sisters, who are in difficulty and prisoners.” 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,” Herzog further said. “The October 7 attack was an attack on our rights and our sovereignty in our homeland, in our only state: Israel.”
Addressing the families of the victims, Herzog said that “no one can truly understand the magnitude of the void that has opened up in your lives. Our role, the role of the entire people of Israel, is to support you. This obviously also applies to the profound moral obligation towards survivors of acts of hostility and terror, and all those who are physically and mentally affected by them, in need of support, assistance, accompaniment, resources, knowledge and care from all of us to try to recover and return to life.”
