Gallant vows to ‘defeat our enemies and defend our homeland’

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to “defeat our enemies and defend our homeland” as he joined Israeli leaders on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7, 2023.

“As a nation, it is our duty to do everything possible to ensure the return of the hostages to Israel, to support those who are wounded in body or soul, to remember and be worthy of the legacy of our fallen troops, to tell the stories of the lives and deaths of our heroes, and to fight courageously in this just war,” the minister wrote in a lengthy X post.

“We will ensure the safe return of our people to their homes. We will rehabilitate and rebuild the regions of our country that have been affected—both in southern and northern Israel.

“On this painful day, more than ever, we are eternally committed to the security and continuity of the State of Israel and her people. Am Israel Chai.”

On Sunday evening, Gallant said that the Cabinet had not discussed the hostage issue in-depth for over two weeks, Channel 12 reported. He made the comments during a visit with family members of captives at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

He emphasized his commitment to bringing back the 101 hostages held in Gaza, reportedly telling the relatives that “I hope I can bring the Cabinet to the same position.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, said that Israel “will rise again from the darkness” in comments posted to X commemorating the tragedy.

“A year ago today, we suffered the worst massacre in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. We will never forget those who were murdered that day, the communities which were destroyed, the hostages taken from us and the soldiers who fell in those heroic battles,” Lapid wrote.

“We will not rest until every hostage is home, our nation is incomplete without them. We will rise again from the darkness, just as the Jewish people have done before. We will defeat our enemies, heal our society and rebuild our country. Israel will be victorious,” he continued.

In an interview with Ynet, Lapid advocated attacking Iran‘s oil fields, nearly a week after Tehran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. The move is opposed by the Biden administration, considered to have close relations with Lapid.

“This is Iran’s Achilles’ heel. With the Americans, there is a complex discussion around this. I can understand why they don’t want, just before the elections in the United States, to see a spike in oil prices. It doesn’t change the fact that Israel has its own interests or its own perspective,” said Lapid.

Asked why not attack the nuclear facilities, Lapid responded:

“I think we need to build a broader coalition to attack the nuclear facilities. This should be in cooperation with the Americans, but right now Israel needs to respond not to one attack but to two. We did not respond strongly enough to the first attack. Iran’s Achilles’ heel is its economy. Iran is a country that is economically shattered, and you always attack where your enemy’s weakness is particularly great.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted that the “pain today is immense. Every fallen soldier, every hostage, every family and every community is carried in the hearts of all Israeli citizens.”

The Religious Zionism Party head listed his commitments, including “to destroy the absolute evil of Hamas, which has brought all of this upon us, along with the other offshoots of the Iranian cancer, and to ensure, with God’s help, the security and future existence of Israel.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in an X post recapped some of the actions the government has taken since Oct. 7, including easing restrictions on personal firearms, initiating over 900 new emergency response teams with thousands of armed volunteers and beefing up restrictions on terrorist prisoners.

“My beloved brothers! Although we are only halfway through, we will continue to work with all our might toward total victory—in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, in Judea and Samaria, and everywhere our enemies tread, until all the hostages are returned home and the residents of the north can safely return to their cities,” said Ben-Gvir.

“We will persist in fighting with even greater strength and determination for our existence and the existence of the nation. Together, we will win. Am Yisrael Chai [The People of Israel Live].”

Yisrael Beiteinu head MK Avigdor Liberman on Monday paid tribute to Sha’ar HaNegev Council head Ofir Liebstein, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 while defending Kfar Aza.

“A year since the death of the Head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Council, my friend, Ofir Liebstein, who defended his home with his body and was killed by terrorist fire in the battles of Kfar Aza on Oct. 7,” Liberman wrote.

“Ofir was a hero of Israel and a symbol of love for the people and the land. May God avenge his blood. May his memory be a blessing.”

Liberman also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in the government for what Liberman said was their failure to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack.

“Even a year after Oct. 7, after the massacre, the rapes, the kidnappings and the abandonment, the prime minister and decision-makers have still not taken responsibility for the failure, for the most severe disaster in the history of the State of Israel,” he wrote.

“The minimum expected of them was to declare Oct. 7 a national day of mourning, but even that they have not done,” he added.

Yair Golan, the leader of the left-wing The Democrats Party, tweeted: “If we don’t take the horror that happened here and use it to build a better Israel, then we haven’t understood the enormous message that fate sent us—wake up!”