Marking 2 years since war began, Netanyahu says Israel ‘determined to complete victory’

At state memorial ceremony, PM hails IDF gains, vows return of ‘every last hostage,’ warns enemies rearming; Herzog urges probe into Oct 7 ‘failure,’ decries resurgent ‘polarization’

Israel on Thursday officially marked two years since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre, at a state memorial ceremony held at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s military achievements throughout the war in Gaza while warning that the “struggle isn’t over.”

The ceremony marked a bittersweet point for the nation, as the war sparked by Hamas’s brutal attack appeared to be ending with the start of the initial phase of US President Donald Trump’s framework, which saw the 20 final living hostages and the remains of nine more return home from Gaza as efforts continued to return the 19 remaining bodies of deceased captives.

President Isaac Herzog, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the heads of the security establishment, government ministers, Knesset members, senior officials, bereaved families and IDF soldiers also attended the ceremony, which honored the fallen soldiers of the October 7 attack and the subsequent war. A second ceremony later Thursday commemorated the murdered civilians.

In their addresses, Netanyahu and Herzog called for the return of the remaining deceased hostages from Gaza, while urging national unity after two grueling years of war.

Netanyahu: ‘Determined to complete victory’

In his tribute to fallen troops at the ceremony, Netanyahu said Israel was “committed to bringing back every last” hostage, while vowing to achieve all of its war goals in Gaza and continue to battle Iran and its proxies seeking the country’s destruction.

“The struggle is not over, but one thing is clear today: Anyone who raises a hand against us already knows he will pay a very heavy price for his aggression,” the premier warned. “We are determined to complete the victory that will shape the order of our lives for many years.”

“Great challenges still lie ahead from our enemies who seek to rearm,” he said, in possible reference to the regime in Tehran, whose nuclear facilities Israel attacked with US assistance in June.

“Great challenges – and alongside them, dramatic and great opportunities to widen the circle of peace,” he added, reiterating his assertion that Israel is poised to expand normalization and peace agreements with Arab and Muslim countries in the wake of the war.

“I know the magnitude of your suffering,” he told the families of fallen soldiers, expressing the nation’s thanks for “all the soldiers who fought in the war: Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims, Bedouin, Circassians and members of other groups – they stood shoulder to shoulder to achieve all the war’s objectives.

“And indeed we will achieve all the objectives of the war,” Netanyahu vowed.

The prime minister also pushed back against accusations that the military campaign in Gaza constituted a genocide, saying the term more aptly applies to what Israel was subjected to on October 7. On that day, he said, “we received a shocking illustration of the expression ‘genocide,’” emphasizing that he was “not talking about a fictitious genocide – one hurled at us in antisemitic libels by those who wish us ill.”

“If those murderers had been able to do more, they would have slaughtered every one of us. This is the real genocide,” Netanyahu said of the Hamas-led terrorists, adding that the attack alerted Israel to the intention of the “regime in Iran and its terror branches to strangle Israel to death in a ring of deadly fire.”

“But our enemies did not calculate one thing: the power within us. We rose to our feet as one,” he continued. “We shifted the focus of battle into enemy territory; we struck it with crushing blows.”

Praising Israel as a “dam against the forces of destruction of radical Islam,” Netanyahu hailed the country’s troops as “the bulwark that separates us from them… They have done it with supreme heroism, with astonishing resourcefulness.”

“From the valley of weeping [on October 7] we reached Mount Hermon and the skies of Tehran, [and] the heart-shaking embrace of the families of the hostages with their loved ones,” the premier said.

Netanyahu added that national unity would be required moving forward: “We are operating on both levels at once, and what is needed on both is unity – unity in war and unity in peace. We will achieve all our goals. Only through internal cohesion, mutual responsibility, and strengthening the bonds that unite rather than divide.”

Herzog: ‘A united day after’

In his tribute to fallen soldiers, Herzog called for national unity in honor of those who were killed in the Hamas-led massacre and the subsequent war.

“After two years of war, we must begin to create a horizon for the future – a ‘day after’ — both inwardly and outwardly,” he said.

“It horrifies me to see and hear that even now, as we continue to bury our dead, the spirit of division, polarization, and hatred once again rears its ugly head,” the president continued. “When we do not surrender to the extremists and the agitators among us – when we choose to unite around a shared flag and a common purpose – there is no task we cannot achieve.”

Herzog expressed gratitude to the parents of the fallen soldiers, telling them, “Thank you for the sons you raised — valiant soldiers who did not hesitate to go forth to save Israel, to defeat the enemy, and to bring back the hostages. Soldiers who carried pictures of the hostages in their pockets, and courage in their hearts.”

He said that “it is no coincidence that US President Donald Trump, in his [Monday] address to the Knesset, made a point of thanking the soldiers of the IDF, praising their heroism and their contribution to the historic turning point now unfolding.”

With the return of the 20 living hostages on Monday under Trump’s ceasefire plan went into effect, and with the ongoing return of the remaining deceased hostages, Herzog noted that “these days are of immense historical and emotional weight — filled both with relief and with the deepest pain and sorrow,” while adding that “the mission is not complete.”

“We must act, by every means and through every channel at our disposal, until every one of the fallen and the hostages — down to the very last — is brought home,” he declared, referring to the bodies of 19 hostages remaining in the Strip.

An Oct. 7 probe ‘worthy of your sacrifice’

Later Thursday, commemorating the civilian victims of the October 7 attack, Herzog asked forgiveness on behalf of the State of Israel for its “failure” to protect its citizens on that day, calling for a probe to “investigate the disaster thoroughly.”

“Nothing can heal your world that was destroyed,” Herzog told bereaved families of civilian victims.

“All that is left for me is to embrace you, to ask forgiveness on behalf of the State of Israel – for the failure and for not having defended you on that dreadful day – and to hope, on behalf of an entire people, that you will be granted relief and consolation, and that we will investigate the disaster thoroughly, broadly and comprehensively, and be worthy of your sacrifice,” he said.

Herzog’s comments came as the government continued to vigorously oppose the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, originally because such an inquiry could not be conducted while Israel was at war, but later due to arguments by several cabinet ministers that such a commission would be biased against the government. On Wednesday, the High Court of Justice told the government that there is “no real argument” against the need to establish such an inquiry.

During his second address, Netanyahu vowed that Israel’s battle against terror “will continue with full force.”

“The list of names of terror victims… bears witness to the heavy price bound to our fundamental right to be a free people in our land,” he said, pointing to an engraved list of terror victims behind him.

He described the October 7 atrocities — where terrorists “beheaded, abducted, raped, tortured, and burned their victims, and even filmed their actions live” — as “among the peaks of barbarity known to humanity in the modern era.”

The premier stated that “during [his] last visit to the United States,” which took place last month and during which he agreed to Trump’s framework to end the war in Gaza, he “insisted that the footage of the atrocities… be shown… be made available [to] world leaders and to the general public abroad.”

While delivering his United Nations address in New York ahead of his meeting with Trump last month, Netanyahu wore a QR code directing scanners to a website showcasing footage from the massacre.

“Our struggle against terror will continue with full force,” Netanyahu pledged, adding that, “at the same time, we will continue to build our country with tremendous momentum.”