Less than a week after the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday fixed a second day of mourning to be marked later this month.
The additional memorial day will be on Sunday, Oct. 27.
All places of entertainment and restaurants are to be closed on that remembrance day, which will begin at sundown on Saturday, Oct. 26, and run for 24 hours.
Earlier this year, the government decided that the annual commemoration for the attack, in which Gazans killed some 1,200 people and abducted another approximately 250, will be held two days after the Simchat Torah holiday on which the assault took place last year, although this year it was marked on Oct. 7 as well.
However this year, two days after Simchat Torah falls on a Shabbat, so the memorial will be held three days after the holy day.
The decision to put Transport Minister Miri Regev in charge of the state ceremony also stoked divisions, leading to separate back-to-back ceremonies last week, one organized by the government and one by family members of victims of the massacre.
