The memorial ceremony for the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre, organized by many of the bereaved families who lost loved ones during the massacre and the resulting war, was held at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv on Monday evening.

The ceremony, which is being led by Hanoch Daum and Rotem Sela, began with a moment of silence and the Yizkor memorial prayer.

Originally, tens of thousands of tickets were sold for the event, but due to the directives of the Home Front Command, it is only being held with the participation of the relatives of the kidnapped, murdered, and fallen in the massacre and war.

Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son Elroi was killed in a shootout with Hamas terrorists on October 7, stated at the ceremony, "Elroi, our dear son, fell at the age of 20. He was born, raised, and educated in Beit She’an, at the foot of Mount Gilboa, where Saul and his son Jonathan fought and fell, as King David lamented in his Elegy: 'How the mighty have fallen on the heights of Israel!'

"He was a brave child, born during Passover, the birthday of the nation of Israel, and was killed on Simchat Torah, the day of rejoicing in the Torah of Israel, while defending the land of Israel.

"Elroi joined the Border Defense Corps in the Combat Intelligence Collection unit and was stationed as a soldier at an observation balloon post in Nahal Oz. On Simchat Torah/October 7, he fought alongside his fellow soldiers: Neta Baram, Daniel Sperber, Amir Ayal, and Shimon Lugasi, of blessed memory, against hundreds of Hamas terrorists. They fought bravely, returned fire, eliminated terrorists, tended to the wounded, reported to their commanders, and fell as heroes defending the homeland and the freedom of Israel.

"How the mighty have fallen.

"From the depths of this devastation, from the sorrow and grief, we stand together as one people with one heart, carrying the sacred memory of those who fell and were murdered, while offering a silent prayer for the return of all the hostages and the recovery of all the wounded.

"The will of the fallen, including Elroi, during these High Holy Days, calls for us to engage in a national reckoning. The beginning of this reckoning must come with taking responsibility. My beloved son and the other heroic soldiers took responsibility upon themselves and sacrificed their lives. From the depths of a grieving heart, and out of love and concern for this land—without any political agenda—I call from this platform for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate the disaster of October 7th.

"The Swords of Iron War, which was forced upon us by a bitter and cruel enemy, erupted immediately after the holiday of Sukkot, the harvest festival, the holiday that most symbolizes togetherness, social solidarity, unity, and the shared narrative of us all.

"In the name of my son, who is no longer with us, I ask that we be worthy, that we stand united.

“'And no more a stalk dreams of its wheat,

"And no more vows and prohibitions,

"Only the promise of the wind that the rain will come on time,

"And will wet her ground at the end of [the month of] Tishrei,” Rafi concluded.

Yigal Cohen, whose daughter Hadar was murdered in her outpost on October 7, said at the ceremony, "My Hadar, may God avenge her death, fell - or more accurately, was murdered - barefoot, in her pajamas, at the Nahal Oz outpost."

"Hadar, my youngest daughter, my only girl after three boys, radiated a light that touched everyone around her. She always cared for others before herself - and, in the end, she was abandoned to die.

"Even though she hadn't been at the outpost for long, it was enough for Hadar, like all her friends, to understand the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders, to understand how many lives depended on her eyes... on the eyes of all the lookout soldiers.

"I stand here today as a father who has lost his little girl, the most precious thing in his life - I still can't believe this is happening to me, to my family. I still don’t know how to rise from the destruction of my private world. But I know that we must rise from the destruction of our collective home. Together. With strength. With unity that comes from power.

"I also stand here today as a representative of all the families of the lookout soldiers who were murdered at the Nahal Oz outpost on that Saturday. We are their voice. And I want all those who need to hear this to know, because the blood of our daughters cries out to us from the earth. We cannot be silent. We will not leave, we will not forget, and we will not grow weary. With whatever strength we have left, we will make sure that those responsible will be held accountable.

"It has been a year since that cursed day when the sky fell, since the light went out in our home…

"After her death, we found a letter that Hadar wrote to herself - tips 'for hard moments only' - 'Smile!', 'You will succeed. If not today, tomorrow.' And, near the end, she added: 'Call home - it will help.'

"My Hadar, I hope you can hear because, above all, I also pray that maybe you will call home. For us, it would help more than anything…

"In memory of the brave lookout soldiers, 'Nobody’s Soldiers,' who were murdered on that black Saturday, we will now release sixteen white balloons: May their memory be a blessing.

"And in a call to bring back the lookout soldiers, the friends of our daughters, we will release five yellow balloons, for you - Daniela Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy, Liri Albag, and Agam Berger - for you and for all those still held captive by Hamas.

"Bring them home, now!" Yigal concluded.

Nitza Korngold, the mother of hostage Tal Shoham, said at the ceremony, "On October 7, 2023, seven members of my family were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri, including my son, Tal. Three of my family members were murdered. The women and children returned after 50 days in the first hostage deal. Tal and another 100 hostages have been in captivity for a whole year now."

"Tal's children, Neve and Yahel, keep asking: Where is Dad? When will he come back? When Dad comes back, will he be very old?

"In which country are these the questions an eight-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl ask?

"Where are our values?

"People of Israel, these are our hostages.

"On October 7, we experienced a Holocaust.

"There was also heroism.

"And all of us, the whole nation, are waiting for the next stage – the stage of revival.

"We know, in our heads, in our hearts, in every cell of our bodies – that there will be no revival without the return of the hostages. Every one of them.

"I call from here to all the world’s leaders to make the immediate release of the hostages a top priority. In a comprehensive deal – all of them.

"I share in the sorrow of the families of the murdered and the fallen soldiers of the IDF, and I wish a speedy recovery to all the wounded.

"And one last, personal word to my son, Tal.

"My dear Tal, if you can see or hear me, we all miss you so much, and we are doing everything to bring you and all the hostages home soon.

"We will not give up on you and on bringing back all the living hostages and giving the fallen a proper burial.

"Because giving up would mean giving up on us," Nitza said.

Arin Habaka and Ashira Greenberg, wives of fallen soldiers Lt. Col. Salman Habaka and Lt. Col. Tomer Greenberg, spoke together at the ceremony.

Greenberg said, "'This is our time of coming together and victory. Our strength and power lie in our unity.' I heard this statement that Salman said to his soldiers before entering the Gaza Strip for the first time when I went to comfort Arin, a woman I hadn’t yet met. Little did I know that about a month later, I would also receive the dubious honor of being called 'a widow of the IDF,' and that Arin would then make the journey from the Galilee to the Dead Sea to comfort me."

"It was a bond that grew from a deep love for this country, a shared home for both peoples. They were both willing to sacrifice their most precious possession—their lives—to ensure a better and safer future for their children and their people."

She added, "Both Salman and Tomer were the kind of commanders that soldiers would follow blindly."

"Arbel, Imad, and all the children of the bereaved families, you are paying a heavy price. You have lost your anchor, a parent who was your father, but now he is a hero to everyone. We are sorry that at such a young age you have to face such a complex reality."

Habaka said, "Only after the deaths of my Salman and Ashira’s Tomer, did I understand the depth of their bond. The recording we listened to, which sounds so simple, is a small window into much greater and deeper moments. It was a connection between two brave fighters, two commanding leaders who understood the weight of responsibility, and also two fathers of small children, who knew the magnitude of the risk but did not hesitate for a moment."

"The future is indeed shrouded in fog, and we face tough challenges on many fronts. Our enemies will not prevail against us if we unite and support each other as one front/wall. But we must remember—unity is not uniformity. Tomer and Salman were different from each other—in their cultures and beliefs—but what connected them was much greater: a love for this land and a determination to protect it. It is our duty to bring the unity that exists on the front lines to the home front as well!

"Both Tomer and Salman left behind not only a glorious legacy but also their successors—our little Imad, and Tomer and Ashira’s sweet Arbel."

Concluding her statements, Habaka added, "We have lost our most precious ones." Greenberg responded, "But we will never lose hope."

Jonathan Shamriz, brother of Alon Shamriz, who was mistakenly killed by IDF troops, said, "Exactly one year ago, the most beautiful place, filled with life, joy, and hope, turned into hell."

"In a single moment, we understood what it meant to be alone: holding the shelter door handle in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, with no food, no water, trying to calm the kids, promising them that everything would be okay... Meanwhile, updates on our phones told of yet another community overrun, another house set on fire, another neighbor murdered...

"Sixty-four members of Kfar Aza were murdered on that cursed day, including my closest friends. Nineteen members of the kibbutz were kidnapped, among them Alon, my beloved younger brother.

"It was a day without an army, without a state - a day where all we had was ourselves, the citizens. This is what abandonment looks like. Instead of standing here as multitudes of the people of Israel, united, we stand here waiting for the next siren. Instead of a state inquiry commission being established to investigate this colossal failure, we ask the questions ourselves without getting any answers. There is no personal example, no vision, no leadership, no accountability.

"But Alon’s story is the opposite. It’s the story of my generation, our generation! Our generation of Israelis: resourceful, brave, and composed.

"For 65 days, he and his friends - Yotam Haim and Samar Tlalka - were held in captivity, under inhuman conditions: without food, without water, enduring torture and threats. In the end, they wrote a single word on a white sheet: 'Help.' But it did not save them. For five days, they sought the light, but tragically, it was denied them at the last moment.

"My brother Alon acted against every basic instinct. He initiated and led. He wasn’t afraid to make mistakes; he wasn’t afraid to believe. For five days, he navigated through the heart of a bombarded neighborhood in Gaza, when no one thought it was even possible. Even in the harshest conditions, even when there was no hope, Alon, being Alon, believed and worked towards a good outcome."

Shamriz added, "In his death, Alon bequeathed us the path, the light, and the hope."

"I believe that from the ruins and destruction, from the hell we went through, a new generation is rising. A generation that believes in us, in a reformed and united Israeli society, a generation that believes in the Israeli spirit. A generation that will rebuild the ruins and create a better, more moral country - a country where truth is pursued, sanctified, and never let go.

"A country built on mutual responsibility, where we do everything for our friends, everything to bring back the 101 captives held in Hamas tunnels. A country we will be proud to raise our children in, a thriving country for the Jewish people and everyone tied to our fate.

"Alon, my hero brother, thank you for showing us the way. Thank you for setting the standard. We will not give up until we fix this. We will not rest until we rebuild.

"We are the generation that will rise from the ruins, from the Holocaust, from the inferno, and fulfill the new Zionist vision.

When that happens, I will know that Alon’s path has become reality. Rise up! The people of Israel live!"