Herzog attends memorial at Nova festival site, calls for international cooperation to disarm Hamas

President Isaac Herzog attended and spoke at a memorial service on Wednesday, held at the Nova Festival site in Reim. The memorial took place three years after the October 7 massacre, during which hundreds of festival-goers were murdered, abducted, and subjected to unspeakable horrors. Herzog emphasized the significance of the event, stating, "Here at the Nova Musical Festival, thousands of young people came to sing and to dance, to celebrate life.

People of 36 nationalities, from all over the world and from Israel. They were horrifically butchered, killed, tortured, raped, and abducted into Gaza." He went on to say, "We are here to tell their stories, and to remember, and reflect, and reminisce, and say to the world: we will dance again, we will live again. We are a nation in agony, but we are showing immense resilience."

Herzog reiterated Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist threats, yet he also expressed a deep desire for peace. He said, "We are a nation like all nations. We have the inherent right to defend ourselves and fight terror. But we yearn for peace, and we want our neighbors to live in peace as well." The only path forward, according to Herzog, is to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2301, which demands the disarmament of Hamas.

This should be the international objective, along with confronting the evil empire from Tehran, he added.

Herzog expressed his gratitude to those who attended the memorial and sent condolence messages. He concluded, "Let the memory of those who were killed be a blessing to all of us."