Sara Vaspi lost her husband Yoav in the Yom Kippur War, her son Arnon in the First Lebanon War, and her grandson, who was named after him in the Swords of Iron war.
Vaspi participated in a meeting with the Prime Minister and later told Kan what she had requested from him. "I requested that they not stop, that they continue until they have completed the goal they set at the beginning of the war. They said they would collapse Hamas and I requested that they not stop so that I not have to lose a great-grandson as well, God forbid."
"We know that if the war does not continue, and they do not collapse Hamas, we will return to the same state of affairs. There will be more rounds of fighting and more casualties, and we do not have the strength or the need for that. We cannot let that happen. It has been more than 20 years of suffering for the towns around the Gaza region, and all of Israel deserves some quiet."
She shared her tragic story: "In the Six Day War, we lived in Nahal Oz. Yoav was a career soldier and served as a division commander in the 9th Division. During a waiting period, he sent a Jeep to bring me and Arnon to Nahal Oz. When I got there, he told me two things: 'Dear Sara, every bullet has an address, but none of them are for me.' The other absurd thing he said was 'Arnon will never have to fight, and perhaps will never have to enlist.' He was gravely mistaken.'
"His last letter to me, two days before he died in the Yom Kippur War, read 'I attempted to believe that there is a God in heaven. I have had a very difficult time. I take that back - I firmly believe there is a God in heaven, and this will never happen again.'
She also recounted the last conversation with her grandson: "This is the third such time I have been so afraid, and I worried so much about Arnon. On October 7th, he called me while he was on the way and said 'Grandma, I'm driving to the Gaza Strip'. I asked if he had received his 'Section 8' (the term for an immediate, emergency draft for Israeli reservists). He answered 'Who needs Section 8? I know where I'm going and why.' Before he entered Gaza, and a day before I received the bitter news, he called me again. I told him 'You're on the beach, enjoy,' and he said 'Grandma, I'm going in now. I won't be able to call you anymore.' I thought it would be because they were out of cell service, but it seems he really can't call me anymore."
She ended with a message to the nation: "I want to keep this unity we have here. We are giving strength to fight to our soldiers. This request is for them, so they don't lose their motivation."