Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Remarks at the State Memorial Ceremony in Memory of the IDF Soldiers and Security Forces Who Fell in the “War of Redemption” and All Those Who Have Fallen Since October 7, at Mount Herzl
[translated from Hebrew]
My distinguished guests, and foremost among you my brothers and sisters in the bereaved family—the families of those who fell in the war.
The fallen who were giants: giants in deed and giants in spirit. Together with the entire nation, my wife Sara and I bow our heads in memory of our sons and daughters, the defenders of the homeland, crowned with heroism.
We embrace each and every family in its grief.
I know there is no true solace for loss and sorrow. What was will never be again. Those who are gone will not return. As Chaim Habshoush, father of Armored Corps fighter Naveh Habshoush, of blessed memory, recently said.
Chaim said: “We mourn not only what was—but also what will no longer be.” In the same breath, he added: “Wherever we go—the fallen will always be part of our journey. We will continue to love the land, we will continue to travel throughout the land, we will continue to protect the land.”
Indeed, so it is.
We will protect our home from the beasts of prey that surround us. And we will do so together, shoulder to shoulder: Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims, Bedouin, Circassians and members of other communities.
Yesterday, I heard one of the stories of this mutual responsibility. During a firefight in the Gaza Strip, one of the soldiers was hit in the neck and the bullet passed through his jaw. For many hours, his fellow soldier, a Druze fighter, plugged the wound and saved his friend’s life until medical help arrived.
For hours, he stood in the breach.
Our legacy of heroism is astounding. The legacy of our fallen is an eternal flame that will illuminate our path for generations to come.
My distinguished guests, citizens of Israel,
Even three years after the outbreak of the war—when the State of Israel is stronger than ever—the terrible hours of the Simchat Torah attack remain seared within us.
The October 7 massacre in the Gaza Envelope exposed for all to see the monstrous evil of our enemies. Babies and children, adults and the elderly, were targets for annihilation, abuse and abduction.
We were not like our tormentors—and we will never be like them.
The fate of every human being touches the deepest fibers of our souls, and therefore we made an unrelenting effort until we brought back all of our hostages, down to the very last one.
At the same time, we responded to our attackers with an intense war on seven fronts.
We did so out of the understanding that this satanic massacre was only the opening shot in the Iranian axis’s plan to destroy the State of Israel.
The camp of evil tried to choke us with a threefold ring of fire: terrorist proxies surrounding us, intended to bleed us; thousands of deadly missiles aimed at our territory and our cities; and above all, nuclear bombs intended to destroy our country and wipe it off the face of the earth.
That was Iran’s three-part plan.
But through our combined strength, we shattered it step by step. Through our combined strength, with our fallen heroes, we acted with initiative, momentum and on the offensive.
Our soldiers and commanders, young lions, severed the arms of terror.
We drove our enemies many kilometers away from our territory.
We created deterrent buffer zones in their territory—in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon and in Syria.
Our soldiers are “on the heights”—and what heights: the crown of Mount Hermon, the summit of the Beaufort, and the Ali Taher Ridge, which we cleared of the infrastructure of death buried deep beneath the earth.
We struck Iran’s own ballistic missile stockpiles, and we severely damaged its nuclear program—its scientists, its facilities and its infrastructure.
When we sat together for the final approval of the plans before “Operation Rising Lion,” I said: We cannot pass the responsibility for dealing with this existential threat on to future generations, because there will be no future generations.
Thanks to the heroism of our fighters, we turned the tables.
We removed from over us a clear and immediate danger of the annihilation of millions of our citizens—of the destruction of the state.
But there are still tasks ahead of us, and we intend to complete them.
There will be no Hamas rule in Gaza.
Anyone who was involved in the attack against us, anyone who held our hostages, is living on borrowed time.
We will reach them, just as we reached others.
Day after day, we settle accounts with these despicable murderers.
In Lebanon—we will continue to strike Hezbollah, and we will create an opportunity for peace with a country whose overwhelming majority wants peace with us.
And as for Iran—we will not allow the regime of terror to threaten our existence.
The tyrannical regime is weaker than it has ever been since its establishment. It is fighting for its life, and ultimately it will pass from the world.
Dear families,
In the battles of Simchat Torah, and thereafter, our sons and daughters in the IDF and the security forces held back with their own bodies those who sought our lives.
Our fighters charged forward: on land, in the air, at sea; above ground and below ground; close to our borders and far from our borders.
Their spirit inspires extraordinary awe.
Leaders around the world tell me: “You rose from the depths of the abyss of October 7. You dealt the Islamist fanatics a crushing blow. You gave humanity hope that the forces of darkness will be defeated. If only we, too, had such extraordinary young people.”
But there are other leaders as well.
To them—those who hurl false accusations at us hour after hour, who want to boycott us—I say:
Israel is engaged in a War of Redemption. There is no war more necessary, and no war more just.
That is the truth.
And you should be ashamed of your lies.
The truth is that we are defending you, too.
And the truth is that the morality of our soldiers is second to none.
The expectation of our fighters—"Be good fighters, be good people”—comes first and foremost from within us.
This was the path of a hero of Israel, the commander of the Southern Brigade in the Gaza Division, Colonel Asaf Hamami, of blessed memory.
Asaf pressed forward to engage the accursed terrorists on October 7. He did so with extraordinary courage.
Asaf Hamami fell in battle, was abducted to Gaza, and after we brought him home—he was laid to rest in a Jewish burial.
I spoke with and met Asaf’s parents—Ilan and Klara—and his wife, Sapir. I heard from them, with great emotion, about the message that perpetuates Asaf’s memory:
“Be good. Be Hamami.”
Major (res.) Harel Birnstock, of blessed memory, who fell two months ago in battle in southern Lebanon, also adhered to this combination of courage and goodness.
Harel, a devoted commander in the “Spearhead” Formation, drew inspiration from what is written in the First Book of Samuel:
“And the men were very good unto us... they were a wall unto us both by night and by day.”
My distinguished guests, dear families,
In Israel, we know whom we are fighting, and what we are fighting for.
Against those who seek to annihilate us—and for the sake of securing our future. Securing the eternity of Israel.
This understanding of our destiny will continue to accompany us as we face the challenges of the future.
There are threats—and we will act against them.
There will be tests—and with God’s help, we will withstand them.
We are creating opportunities to expand the circle of reconciliation and peace in our region—and in this, too, we will succeed.
Let us always remember:
Our resilience rests upon the finest of our sons and daughters, who gave their lives for us.
Our resilience rests upon the finest of our people, who act with courage and determination to secure the eternity of Israel.
I wish a full recovery to those wounded in the war, in body and in spirit.
When I see the wounded in the rehabilitation wards—and elsewhere as well—I am awed by their strength of spirit.
Here is one striking example:
Naveh Rosenfeld, a fighter in the Oketz Unit, was wounded in Gaza. Naveh’s leg was amputated, but he did not give up.
He insisted on rehabilitating, on returning to life, and also on proposing marriage to his girlfriend Anava, who was by his side throughout.
Naveh knelt before her—an iron knee, for a fighter with an iron will.
To Naveh and Anava, to the wounded, to the fighters, to you—the families of our fallen men and women—and to all the citizens of Israel, I pledge that we will not relent from our goal:
To be strong.
To be united.
To be victorious!
May the memory of our fallen—the heroes of the War of Redemption—be blessed forever and ever.”
