The State of Israel marks three years since the day of tragedy, the day of divine hiddenness that befell our people on the Shabbat of Simchat Torah three years ago. The day approximately 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and fell in battle. The day when operational failure and security blindness—the strategic concept reaching its zenith—brought the murderous savages of the Hamas terror organization directly into Israel’s border communities.
1+Throughout this week, memorial services will be held to commemorate and recount the courage of the heroes, the slaughtered, the fallen, those who charged into fire to defend at all costs, and those who reached out to save their fellow brothers under unimaginable conditions. During this solemn week, we unite to sanctify the memory of the holy souls who fell in this grueling campaign.
Yet history reminds us that even in the Yom Kippur War, with 2,800 soldiers lost in battle, Israel ultimately overturned the operational reality, culminating in a historic military triumph 100 kilometers from Cairo and 40 kilometers from Damascus.
1+In this campaign as well, the nation knew how to pivot, executing a profound conceptual overhaul alongside decisive, sweeping combat operations against our enemies across every active theater. Three years later, we do not forget for a single moment the murdered, the butchered, and the fallen soldiers.
Above all, our eyes turn toward those hundreds of meters separating the Gaza Strip from Israeli communities—those very fields tended by the resilient pioneers of the Gaza envelope. There, the wheat continues to sprout and grow today, rising green and unbroken toward tomorrow, standing as the ultimate symbol of our enduring victory.