JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel marked three years since the October 7th Hamas massacre on Monday, lowering flags to half-staff. The National Remembrance Day is observed each year on the Hebrew calendar, two days after Simchat Torah, the holiday on which the horrific attack occurred in 2023.
At the solemn ceremony, leaders joined in remembering the 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage in the terrorist attack.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid a wreath and called for a full investigation into the failures that allowed the attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focused on what he believes is still yet to be done.
“We achieved tremendous accomplishments, but there are still tasks ahead of us, and we intend to complete them. In Gaza, there will be no rule by Hamas. Anyone who was involved in the attack against us, anyone who held our people hostage, is living on borrowed time. We will reach him, just as we reached the others,” the prime minister declared.
Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted that Israel is making good on that promise. He said that about 6,000 terrorists crossed into Israel on October 7th, and the Israel Defense Forces have now killed 4,000 of them. He warned that the IDF intends to eliminate the remaining two thousand.
On Tuesday, thousands of Christians plan to gather at Jerusalem’s Western Wall in what organizer, Friends of Zion Founder Mike Evans, describes as the largest prayer event in history.
He called it, “The greatest day of hopelessness in the State of Israel, where the Jewish people felt they were alone. And we want them to know they are not alone, and they are going to see the nations of the earth standing with the Jewish people.”
Evans indicated that 125 nations have pledged to take part worldwide, involving more than five million people.
He observed, “We believe the battle has to be fought against principalities and powers, and we are going to fight it for over 24 hours.”
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Meanwhile, President Trump explained his decision to move a dozen B-1 Bombers out of a British air base after what The Wall Street Journal reports was a credible threat of an Iranian drone attack.
“There were some threats,” the president said. “And rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit – not very far.”
The threat was reportedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and aimed at destroying U.S. aircraft and killing American personnel.
Trump says he personally believes that Iran was also behind last week’s attempted hijacking of a FlyDubai flight bound for Tel Aviv.
