Bereaved father interrupts Netanyahu at state October 7 ceremony on Mount Herzl

Israel held its state ceremony marking three years since the Hamas-led massacre of October 7 at the memorial site for victims of hostile acts on Mount Herzl. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog both addressed the event, and Ynet reported that Herzog, standing before Netanyahu, again stressed that the failures of that day had to be investigated. Netanyahu, according to the same report, told the audience that Hamas would not rule Gaza.

The ceremony was interrupted twice. A man in the crowd shouted at Supreme Court President Isaac Amit that he did not deserve to lay a wreath, an incident The Jerusalem Post also reported. Later, during Netanyahu's speech, Yaakov Godo, whose son Tom was killed, called out that the prime minister had not protected his son. N12 reported that Netanyahu briefly stopped speaking.

What Netanyahu said

Netanyahu referred to the war by the name his government uses for it, the "War of Revival" (in Hebrew, Milhemet HaTkuma), Ynet reported. He said there would be "no Hamas rule" in Gaza and that anyone who had held Israeli hostages was living on borrowed time, a line carried by several Hebrew outlets, including political commentator Amit Segal's channel. In a later Ynet report, he was quoted as promising to settle accounts with those who carried out the attack and saying there would be no forgiveness for the killers. Israel Hayom described his speech as including a warning directed at both Hamas and what it called the Iranian axis, the network of armed groups aligned with Iran.

Herzog on an inquiry and the coming election

Herzog did not call for a state commission of inquiry in his speech, Ynet noted, but repeated before Netanyahu that what happened had to be examined. A state commission of inquiry is the most powerful investigative body available under Israeli law: an independent panel whose members are appointed by the president of the Supreme Court, rather than by the government. Whether to establish one into the events of October 7 has been a central political question in Israel, and the omission was the point Ynet chose to highlight.

According to a Ynet alert, Herzog said that over the past 3 years Israelis had seen families living in uncertainty and demanding answers. He also turned to politics ahead of a national election: News.co.il reported that he urged all citizens to exercise their right to vote, and Ynet quoted him asking voters to remember, on their way to the ballot box, the bond that holds Israelis together. Israel Hayom said he warned against political division.

Israel Hayom also reported that Herzog paid tribute to the Nahal Oz lookouts. These were the young women soldiers serving as surveillance spotters at the Nahal Oz army base next to the Gaza border, a post that was overrun in the attack. Their story has become one of the most closely followed of October 7, partly because of questions over whether their warnings before the assault were heeded.

The two interruptions

The first outburst was aimed at Isaac Amit, who heads Israel's Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial body. A member of the audience shouted at him that he was not worthy of laying a wreath. The reports do not identify the man.

The second came from Yaakov Godo, father of Tom Godo. Early accounts, including N12's first post, described only a man in the crowd; an edited N12 version later named him. Accounts of his exact words vary slightly between outlets. Ynet quoted him as saying Netanyahu had failed to protect his son and the 1,200 people murdered, and calling it a disgrace. N12 rendered it as shame that Netanyahu had not protected those murdered on October 7, while News.co.il and a Ynet alert reported the shorter line that Netanyahu had not protected his son.

Others present

The Israel Defense Forces said its Chief of the General Staff, the country's most senior military officer, attended the ceremony, and the IDF spokesperson released video and photographs from the event. The statement did not name the chief of staff.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports gives the full texts of the speeches, so the quotations above are short excerpts as relayed by the outlets. The reports do not say who heckled Amit, whether either man was removed from the ceremony, or whether Amit or Netanyahu responded beyond Netanyahu's brief pause. They do not give the date of the coming election, and they do not explain what Herzog meant by an investigation, or how it would differ from a state commission. The circumstances of Tom Godo's death are not described in the material.