Opposition leader Yair Lapid sent a letter on Tuesday to Minister Miri Regev, who is in charge of Independence Day events, in which he claimed that his party members would transfer the invitations they received to the torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl to the families of the hostages in Gaza.
However, the family members had already been invited to the event by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
In his letter, Lapid wrote that ahead of the Independence Day events and the torch-lighting ceremony, the Yesh Atid faction decided to transfer the 46 invitations to which we are entitled as Knesset members for the torch-lighting ceremony to the families of the hostages. The tickets will be transferred to the Families Forum and I ask you to make sure that the families do not encounter any difficulties at the entrance to the event. It deems fit that those who pay the unimaginable price of war should sit in the front rows every day."
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The Families Forum issued a statement stating that "all the families of the hostages and hostage survivors, as well as the captives themselves, have already been sent invitations to the torch-lighting ceremony on the eve of Independence Day, as well as to the dress rehearsal. The Families Forum received, in coordination with Minister Miri Regev, a large and respectable quota of invitations, which were offered, as mentioned, to all the families.
Many chose to accept the invitation and will attend the ceremony. Representatives of the Families forum will accompany the families and attend to all their needs before, during and after the ceremony."