Israel’s fight against terror will ‘continue with full force,’ says Netanyahu at Oct. 7 memorial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday paid tribute to the civilians killed in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre and in the war thereafter, and vowed that Israel’s battle against terror “will continue with full force.” Netanyahu delivered his second address at the state memorial ceremony on Thursday, marking two years since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack. Speaking at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, he said, “The list of names of terror victims… bears witness to the heavy price bound to our fundamental right to be a free people in our land.”

“Despite October 7 being another chapter in the long war for our national existence, those events also stand among the peaks of barbarity known to humanity in the modern era,” he added. “They beheaded, abducted, raped, tortured, and burned their victims, and even filmed their actions live—including their cries of joy.”

Netanyahu, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the heads of Israel’s security establishment, ministers, Knesset members, and families of those killed on October 7, 2023, attended the official state memorial ceremony of the Hamas terror attack on Thursday.

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Netanyahu said that during his last visit to the United States last month, when he agreed to US President Donald Trump’s framework to end the war in Gaza, he “insisted that the footage of the atrocities… be shown… be made available [to] world leaders and to the general public abroad.”

During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu sported a QR code on his lapel, which, if scanned, opened a link to footage of the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7.

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‘Israel will not allow evil to raise its head’

“Our struggle against terror will continue with full force,” he said, and vowed that Israel “will not allow evil to raise its head. We will exact the full price from anyone who harms us.”

“At the same time, we will continue to build our country with tremendous momentum,” he added.

Netanyahu also remembered “the terrible losses from all enemy actions during the war, including victims of the missiles Iran launched at Israeli cities” during the 12-day war in June.

The memory of Israeli victims “will accompany us in our actions to secure a good future, a safe future—to stand up to the challenges from our enemies and to widen the circle of peace with our neighbours,” Netanyahu asserted.

“Above all, we need unity—unity in war, unity in peace. May the memory of the victims of hostile acts be held with us for generations to come,” he adds.

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