About 50,000 people attended a national memorial ceremony organized by the Kumu movement and bereaved families at Yarkon Park. Hostage survivor Eli Sharabi and actress Shani Cohen hosted the event, where speakers called for remembrance and an inquiry.
The ceremony was held for the third year and was broadcast at venues around Israel. It opened with a minute of silence. Families of those killed, former hostages and opposition figures, including Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Lapid and Yair Golan, attended.
Sharabi opened his remarks by remembering those killed and fallen, and acknowledging people still living with the trauma. He thanked Israelis for their support and said the events of October 7 must remain part of the country’s collective memory. Cohen spoke of the families, homes and communities lost, describing the passage of time as 1,096 days of grief.
Singer Arkadi Duchin performed his song “Who Loves You More Than Me” on a piano placed in the Kipsnis family home in Be’eri. Avitar (Terry) and Lilach Kipsnis, along with Terry’s caregiver Paul Vincent Castelbey, were killed there. Or-Li Niv, whose son Omri Niv Fierstien was killed in the battle at Zikim, read the poem “Mothers” by Asnat Eldar.
The ceremony also remembered civilians and service members who died while helping others. The sister of Captain Sahar Saudayan recalled the Iron Dome officer’s fatal mission to replenish her battery near the Re’im junction. Aviva Chana spoke about her brother Israel, who was killed defending Ofakim on his 30th birthday.
A video tribute honored transport drivers Haim Ben Arieh and Abed al-Karim Nasasra, who responded to requests to evacuate civilians on October 7. Nasasra was killed in an ambush on Route 232. Ben Arieh died by suicide in late October 2023 after what he had witnessed. Rabbi Beni Kalmanzon recited the Kaddish for his son Elhanan, who died fighting in Be’eri.
Sharabi, who lost his wife, daughters and brother, had said before the ceremony that October 7 must remain etched in the national memory and should never pass without a central national commemoration. Dozens of Israeli performers took part, including Shlomo Artzi, Gali Atari, Miri Mesika and Eden Golan.