Netanyahu: While Oct. 7 is ‘seared into us,’ three years on, Israel ‘stronger than ever’

Three years after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Israel is “stronger than ever,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a memorial ceremony on Monday, while adding that “even now, the terrible hours of the Simchat Torah massacre are seared into us.”

The premier spoke at a state memorial ceremony at the Great Leaders of the Nation Memorial Park on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, where he honored Israel Defense Forces soldiers and members of the security forces slain in the Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing War of Redemption.

“Anyone who was involved in the attack against us and held our hostages is living on borrowed time,” he warned. “Day by day, we are settling accounts with these despicable murderers.”

He vowed that there would be no Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.

“Our soldiers and commanders cut off the arms of terror,” the prime minister said. “We pushed back our enemies and created deterrent buffer zones in their territories.”

Netanyahu said Israel had fought back on “seven fronts,” characterizing the Oct. 7 attack as the opening move in an Iranian-led plan to destroy the Jewish state. He said Israeli forces had struck Iran’s ballistic-missile capabilities and dealt a severe blow to its nuclear program, and pledged that Israel would not allow Iran’s regime to threaten the country’s existence. He described Tehran as weaker than at any point since the Islamic Republic’s establishment.

“In Lebanon, we will continue to strike Hezbollah and create the possibility of peace with a country whose overwhelming majority wants peace with us,” he said.

Turning to the fallen, Netanyahu said Israeli soldiers and security personnel had blocked “with their bodies” those seeking to destroy the country. He highlighted Col. Assaf Hamami, the highest-ranking IDF officer slain on Oct. 7, who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, whose remains were taken to Gaza and later returned to Israel for burial.

Netanyahu was scheduled to attend a second state memorial ceremony commemorating “the massacre and heroism” of Oct. 7 later on Monday.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog reflected Monday on three years of bereavement, injury, displacement and uncertainty since Oct. 7, while praising the strength and solidarity shown by Israeli society.

“Amid all this, we also saw the strength that this remarkable people knows how to summon,” Herzog said at the state memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. “We saw Israelis who rose from their pain to help others. We saw Israelis who extended a hand, and found another hand reaching back.”

Herzog said Israel had experienced “unfathomable lows” alongside “unfathomable heights” during the war, citing the return of hostages—some to rebuild their lives and others, he said, “heartbreakingly,” for burial in Israel.

He mourned the loss of “so many of the finest” Israelis from across the country’s communities and backgrounds, saying their stories must be remembered. He also highlighted citizens who returned to rebuild, plant and harvest after being forced from their homes.

Herzog also honored the surveillance soldiers at the Nahal Oz outpost, calling them “the eyes of the IDF and the state.” He stated that they identified terrorists approaching the border at 6:29 a.m. on Oct. 7 and continued reporting as the attack reached them.