{"id":399337,"date":"2026-04-18T22:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399337\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:46:07","slug":"thousands-join-oct-7-victims-memorial-in-tel-aviv-as-families-accuse-leaders-of-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399337\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands join Oct. 7 victims memorial in Tel Aviv as families accuse leaders of fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bereaved families held an alternative memorial ceremony<\/a> Saturday evening at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, drawing thousands under the title \u201c1,000 days of blood and tears,\u201d as Israel enters its annual remembrance period.<\/p>\n

The event, organized by the umbrella protest group the October Council, was described by participants as a \u201cceremony of forgetting,\u201d reflecting frustration with the government\u2019s handling of the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. Actor Tzachi Halevi hosted the ceremony, where representatives from different communities spoke and lit torches in memory of loved ones.<\/p>\n

Among those taking part were relatives of hostages, victims of the Oct. 7 attack, fallen IDF soldiers and members of the security forces. Ofri Bibas, sister of hostage survivor Yarden Bibas and a relative of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were killed in captivity, placed a wreath for the hostages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never forget,\u201d Bibas said. \u201cI don\u2019t need a reminder, not one day a year to tell me to stop and remember.\u201d She described the fear in the eyes of her relatives and said there were days when they could have been saved.<\/p>\n

Other participants included Benjamin Katz, whose relatives were killed in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Yuval Zaushnitzer, widow of an IDF company commander killed on the first day of the war, who placed a wreath for fallen soldiers.<\/p>\n

Eyal Eshel, father of surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed on Oct. 7, said his daughter \u201cdid her job until the last second,\u201d accusing leaders of failing to respond. \u201cWe will not be silent,\u201d he said. \u201cNot until there are answers and not until there is accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revital Markovitz, widow of a police officer killed while protecting the Nova music festival, said she was there \u201cso the country does not forget\u201d the officers who died that day. She described her husband as someone who chose to stay and fight despite opportunities to withdraw.<\/p>\n

Families also recited an alternative memorial prayer, which organizers said was meant to express anger over what they described as failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.<\/p>\n

Organizers said the ceremony was one of dozens of events planned for the coming week. On Sunday, families are expected to hold additional memorial gatherings outside the homes of government ministers and coalition lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bereaved families held an alternative memorial ceremony Saturday evening at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, drawing thousands under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-399337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}