“It is us, Israel, or them, the monsters of Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed in his speech at the state’s main Memorial Day event at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
Israel is mourning the 25,040 people killed in its wars and in acts of hostility against citizens during the course of its 76-year history. Ceremonies took place after the 11 AM memorial siren in military cemeteries around the entire country.
Netanyahu added that the campaign in Gaza is the ‘choice between freedom and prosperity versus despair, murder, and violence.
“We are determined to win in this struggle,” Netanyahu said, speaking to a crowd of senior ministers, chief rabbis, the IDF chief of staff, diplomats, and bereaved families.
“We will achieve the goals of victory, first and foremost, bringing all of our hostages home,” pledged Netanyahu.
He said that unity is key in the war, which has says is a continuation of Israel’s War of Independence.
“Only together we will win,” he concluded.
At a Memorial Day ceremony for fallen members of the Shin Bet, agency chief Ronen Bar vowed that the security service will learn from its failures in the lead-up to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
“It’s a difficult day for every bereaved family, it’s a difficult day for every citizen, it’s a difficult day for every Shin Bet employee, it’s also a difficult day for me personally,” Bar says.
Ten members and veterans of the Shin Bet were killed since last Memorial Day, all in the October 7 attack. Bar admitted that the Shin Bet had failed to provide its vaunted security umbrella for Israel on October 7.
“We all feel the loss, the feeling that we could have prevented it, and as the head of the agency and responsible for the agency’s activities, I feel it perhaps more than anyone,” Bar continued.
He added that the Shin Bet is undertaking an “in-depth” investigation of its role in the October 7 failures.
“A painful and significant investigation. We will learn from this and correct what is required. This is our duty to the people of Israel and this is our duty to the fallen. Without the public’s trust in the state institutions and us, we have no right to exist,” Bar says.
Bar stressed that the Shin Bet’s role in the war “is not over yet.”
“We will not rest until we return all 128 hostages home, and the four who were there before. Those who are alive and those who are not. All of them. Because this is the real difference between us and them: We will sacrifice our lives for the citizens, they will sacrifice the lives of citizens for themselves,” he adds.
As reported by VINnews