Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Israel’s state memorial ceremony for the October 7 massacre to deliver a warning to Hamas, saying the terrorist organization will not be permitted to rule Gaza and that those responsible for the attack and the captivity of Israeli hostages will ultimately face consequences.

“There will be no Hamas rule in Gaza. Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time. Every day, we settle accounts with these despicable murderers,” Netanyahu said.

President Isaac Herzog used his remarks at the ceremony to focus not only on those killed and abducted on October 7, but also on the warnings that preceded the attack and the divisions that continue to challenge Israeli society.

Herzog recalled the families who lost loved ones, describing the effort he and his wife, Michal, have made to understand the lives of those who died beyond the circumstances of their deaths.

“Over the past three years, Michal and I have tried, every single day, to listen, to learn, to honor and to remember all your loved ones,” he said, addressing the bereaved families. “To read about them, to learn the paths of their lives, to hear about their successes, their joys and their dreams, and to come to know the full and varied lives they left behind.”

He said the country must share the grief of those families while remembering the people who were lost and recognizing that their lives cannot be restored.

“We ask to share your pain, to shed tears with you, to bow our heads in their memory and, together with all of Israel, to remember and remind ourselves of what we have lost, all of us, and what we can never bring back.”

The warnings before October 7

A significant portion of Herzog’s speech centered on the female observation soldiers stationed at Nahal Oz, whose responsibility was to monitor developments along the Gaza border.

He described them as the “eyes of the IDF, and of the state” and emphasized their ability to detect changes in the area.

“The ones who watched and warned…And they knew how to recognize when it changed.”

According to Herzog, the observers had noticed unusual activity before the October 7 attack and repeatedly reported what they were seeing. The problem, he said, was that the information never became a complete assessment that prompted an adequate response.

“We heard how, before the October 7 disaster, they sensed that something was happening in the sector. They saw. They reported. They raised the alarm. But no one assembled it into a complete picture.”

Herzog also recalled a message that the observers had written on a shelter wall at Nahal Oz months before the massacre. In retrospect, he said, the words reflected the complacency that preceded the attack.

“One of them was written with a cynical, clear-eyed perspective. In hindsight, the message takes on a chilling meaning. It captures the story of an entire country, the story of Israel on the eve of the war. In bright pink letters, they wrote: ‘Look how calmly she walks, as though Gaza were not right next to her.’”

The president described the events of the morning of October 7, saying that at 6:29 a.m. the observers saw terrorists approaching the border and immediately communicated the military warning for an infiltration.

“in steady voices, they announced the military code for a terrorist infiltration into Israel: ‘Turkish Horse’.”

Seven of the observers were taken hostage. Six eventually returned alive, while Cpl. Noa Marciano was killed during her captivity.

“Cpl. Noa Marciano, of blessed memory, was murdered by the Hamas terrorists while she was in captivity,” he stated.

Herzog praised all of the observers for continuing to perform their duties despite the danger they faced.

“All of them carried out their duties with professionalism, courage and self-sacrifice. They were, in the words of the prophet Ezekiel, ‘a watchman for the house of Israel.’”

He also paid tribute to the 53 IDF soldiers killed while defending Nahal Oz and to the hundreds of other people killed throughout southern Israel.

Remembering the hostages and those forced from their homes

Herzog said Israel has endured enormous losses during the war, including the displacement of civilians from communities near the fighting. At the same time, he argued that the country has demonstrated an ability to recover and rebuild, reaching what he described as “unimaginable heights.”

Among the developments he highlighted was the return of the hostages, while acknowledging that some came home to begin rehabilitation and others were returned for burial.

“We brought the hostages home. Some returned for rehabilitation and to rebuild their lives, while others, to our profound sorrow, were brought back for burial in Israel,” he said.

The president described the people killed during the conflict as coming from every segment of Israeli society.

“In this difficult campaign, we have lost so many, to our sorrow. The finest of our sons and daughters. Extraordinary young women and men, as well as people who had lived many years, built families, homes and communities,” he said.

“From every community in Israel. From every part of Israel. From every political position, religion, belief, camp and way of life.”

A warning about Israel’s internal divisions

Herzog then turned from the battlefield to Israel’s domestic political climate, arguing that the country must take seriously the warning signs emerging within its own society.

He called on Israelis to examine what is happening internally rather than focusing exclusively on external threats.

“In these days, in the midst of an election campaign, we must look at and heed the glaring warning lights, those that signal dangerous disputes and deep division,” Herzog stated. “Of course we are permitted to disagree, and indeed we have a duty to debate important matters and the great questions.”

But, he cautioned, political disagreements cannot erase the fact that Israelis remain members of the same society and will have to live, serve and build the country’s future together.

“But we must remember: The person who disagrees with you today will live here with you tomorrow as well. Their children will grow up in the same country as your children. They will be called upon to protect it together, and to build its future together.”

‘We will shine again’

Herzog concluded by returning to the themes of remembrance and hope, invoking the words of Hatikvah and arguing that Israel’s future remains dependent on the choices Israelis make now.

“In our national anthem, Hatikvah, we sing: ‘An eye still gazes toward Zion.’ The gaze watches, and the heart hopes. Because we still have much to hope for. Because the future that awaits us here can and must be great. It depends only on us.”

He then recalled another message written by the Nahal Oz observers on the same shelter wall. Unlike the earlier warning about Gaza, this one expressed optimism.

“Everything will be all right. We will shine again.”

Herzog said those words have a different meaning after the events of the past three years and cannot simply be repeated without acknowledging what happened to the women who wrote them.

“I read those words and think of the women who wrote them. Brave soldiers who had so much ahead of them. The lives still waiting for them. After the past three years, we cannot repeat those words as though nothing happened. We cannot.”

At the same time, he said the message can still serve as an expression of the desire to preserve and rebuild life.

“But we can carry those words with us. The love of life contained within them.”

Herzog ended with a pledge to remember the dead, investigate the failures surrounding October 7, and continue building Israel’s future.

“We will not forget those we lost. We will not relent from our duty to investigate and to correct. And we will not give up on the lives that can still be built here. I believe in us. We will shine again.”