President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday attended and addressed the memorial ceremony at the site of the Nova music festival near Re’im, where hundreds of festival-goers were murdered and abducted during the Hamas-led October 7 massacre three years ago.
Prior to the ceremony, Herzog delivered a statement to the international media from the site, recalling the thousands of young people who had gathered there to celebrate before the attack.
“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," Herzog said.
The President said that three years after the massacre, Israel remains determined to commemorate the victims while demonstrating its resilience and rebuilding the communities devastated in the attack.
“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," he declared.
“We are a nation in agony, but we are showing immense resilience. This whole region, which was attacked barbarically on October 7th, is now rebuilding."
Herzog stressed Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism while emphasizing its desire for peace with its neighbors.
“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," he said.
The President said that a path toward that goal exists through the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2301, which he said calls for Hamas to be disarmed.
“And there is a pathway to that by implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2301, which calls for the disarming of Hamas. This should be the international goal, as well as combating the empire of evil from Tehran," Herzog stated.
Concluding his remarks, Herzog thanked those around the world who had expressed solidarity with Israel and shared in the grief of the victims’ families.
“I want to thank everybody who came here, and all those who have sent messages of condolences and share in our pain," he said.
“Let the memory of those who were killed be a blessing to all of us."