At October 7 state ceremony, Netanyahu vows there will be 'no Hamas rule' in Gaza - The Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that Hamas would not govern the Gaza Strip, speaking at the state memorial ceremony for theOctober 7 massacre.

"There will be no Hamas rule in Gaza. Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time. Every day, we settle accounts with these despicable murderers," Netanyahu said.

At the same ceremony, President Isaac Herzog warned that Israel cannot ignore internal or external signs of trouble, regardless of division within the state.

“Over the past three years, Michal and I have tried, every single day, to listen, to learn, to honor and to remember all your loved ones,” he said, addressing the bereaved families. “To read about them, to learn the paths of their lives, to hear about their successes, their joys and their dreams, and to come to know the full and varied lives they left behind.”

“We ask to share your pain, to shed tears with you, to bow our heads in their memory and, together with all of Israel, to remember and remind ourselves of what we have lost, all of us, and what we can never bring back.”

Herzog recounted the female observers stationed at the Nahal Oz base, some of whom were murdered on October 7, 2023, while others were abducted into Gaza.

They were “eyes of the IDF, and of the state” on Gaza’s border, he stated. “The ones who watched and warned…And they knew how to recognize when it changed.”

“We heard how, before the October 7 disaster, they sensed that something was happening in the sector. They saw. They reported. They raised the alarm. But no one assembled it into a complete picture.”

Months before the massacre, Herzog shared, the observers wrote various messages on one of the base’s shelter walls.

"One of them was written with a cynical, clear-eyed perspective. In hindsight, the message takes on a chilling meaning. It captures the story of an entire country, the story of Israel on the eve of the war. In bright pink letters, they wrote: ‘Look how calmly she walks, as thoughGazawere not right next to her.’”

He shared how at 6:29 a.m., the observers noticed terrorists approaching the fence and, “in steady voices, they announced the military code for a terrorist infiltration into Israel: 'Turkish Horse’.”

While seven observers were taken hostage by Hamas, only six were returned home alive.

“Cpl. Noa Marciano, of blessed memory, was murdered by the Hamas terrorists while she was in captivity,” he stated. “All of them carried out their duties with professionalism, courage and self-sacrifice. They were, in the words of the prophet Ezekiel, “a watchman for the house of Israel.”

Herzog praised the 53 IDF soldiers who were killed defending Nahal Oz, and the hundreds of others who were killed across southern Israel.

He addressed the hundreds of Israeli refugees who were forced to evacuate their homes due to the war, and how the nation has returned to itself since, climbing to “unimaginable heights.”

“We brought the hostages home. Some returned for rehabilitation and to rebuild their lives, while others, to our profound sorrow, were brought back for burial in Israel,” he said.

“In this difficult campaign, we have lost so many, to our sorrow. The finest of our sons and daughters. Extraordinary young women and men, as well as people who had lived many years, built families, homes and communities,” he said.

“From every community in Israel. From every part of Israel. From every political position, religion, belief, camp and way of life.”

He affirmed Israel’s obligation to not ignore internal or external warning signs, and that we must “also look directly at what is happening to us at home, within our own society.”

"In these days, in the midst of an election campaign, we must look at and heed the glaring warning lights, those that signal dangerous disputes and deep division,”Herzogstated. “Of course we are permitted to disagree, and indeed we have a duty to debate important matters and the great questions.”

“But we must remember: The person who disagrees with you today will live here with you tomorrow as well. Their children will grow up in the same country as your children. They will be called upon to protect it together, and to build its future together.”

“In our national anthem, Hatikvah, we sing: ‘An eye still gazes toward Zion.’ The gaze watches, and the heart hopes. Because we still have much to hope for. Because the future that awaits us here can and must be great. It depends only on us.”

“On that same shelter wall at theNahal Ozpost, beneath that chilling message, the observation soldiers wrote another, smaller message. It, too, was written in pink. This is what they wrote: “Everything will be all right. We will shine again.”

“I read those words and think of the women who wrote them. Brave soldiers who had so much ahead of them. The lives still waiting for them. After the past three years, we cannot repeat those words as though nothing happened. We cannot.”

"But we can carry those words with us. The love of life contained within them.”

“We will not forget those we lost. We will not relent from our duty to investigate and to correct. And we will not give up on the lives that can still be built here. I believe in us. We will shine again.”