By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s embattled prime minister pledged Monday on the October 7 massacre’s anniversary that “together with God’s grace,” the grieving Jewish nation will triumph over evil.

Benjamin Netanyahu told mourners in a video message marking the day that Hamas attacked Israel: “Together we will continue to fight, and together – with God’s grace – we will triumph.”

The ceremony occurred in Ofakim, near the Gaza Strip, where 40 people were murdered a year ago.

Netanyahu recalled that in total, about 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and allies in Israel, while some 250 others were abducted to the Gaza Strip. It was “a day of indescribable suffering for the country,” he said.

Yet the right-wing politician asserted that the Israelis had united to defend the country.

“We have set the war objectives and are achieving them,” he said.

He said these objectives were to dismantle Hamas’ rule, bring all hostages home, make any future threat from the Gaza Strip impossible, and ensure the safe return of residents from the south and north to their homes.

“PARADISE INTO HELL”

The fight was necessary as the Hamas massacre on October 7 turned a “paradise into hell,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said at the same prerecorded state ceremony.

However, questions were raised about the government’s apparent inability to prevent the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah.

Those questions were also asked during an earlier event in Tel Aviv organized as a counterpoint to the official state-led ceremony, which many grieving families boycotted.

Israeli media reported that the 50,000 tickets allotted for the event were reserved within hours of their release, but due to wartime restrictions on large gatherings, attendance was limited to the press and victims’ families.

Those dangers became clear when attendants were forced to the ground by incoming one or more rockets fired by Houthis in Yemen, one of several Iran-backed groups attacking Israel on Monday.

Yet after the missile was intercepted, the scaled-back audience — and a larger crowd viewing from all over the world by livestream — heard musical performances from various celebrities.

There was also political outrage from families who said they felt abandoned by Israel’s government and chilling testimony from October 7 survivors.

NEXT SIREN

“Instead of standing here in multitudes as a united people of Israel, we wait for the next siren,” said co-organizer Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of Alon Shamriz, who was taken captive and later killed by Israeli soldiers in a case of mistaken identity.

In a video broadcast at the event, Yuval Sharvit Trabelsi, who survived the October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival but lost her husband Mor there, revealed for the first time that she witnessed rape while trying to evade Hamas terrorists.

“We saw murder, kidnappings, but the hardest of them all was rape,” she said. “I have never heard screams for help like the ones I heard from that woman.”

She went on to recount how she smeared herself with her husband’s blood “so that the terrorists would think” she was dead. In all, more than 360 people were killed at the Nova festival.

Yet despite triggered sirens in Tel Aviv, Linda Trabelsi, the mother of hostage Eitan Mor, said the threat of rockets didn’t deter her from attending the memorial service.

“Not coming wasn’t an option.” But she told media that last month had been especially difficult because it included Mor’s birthday and what would have been his first wedding anniversary.

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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