Survivors of Hamas brutality demand full accountability for security failures that enabled the October 7 atrocity.
On the 800th day since Hamas unleashed its barbaric massacre across southern Israel on October 7, 2023, a powerful public appeal shook the Israeli political system. Roughly 200 former hostages and families of hostages demanded on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately establish a state commission of inquiry—or resign.
The signatories include some of the most searing symbols of the October 7 tragedy and its aftermath:
Yarden Bibas; Arbel Yehud; Ariel and Sharon Cunio; Luis Har; Gadi Mozes; Amit Soussana; Ohad and Raz Ben-Ami; the sister of Eden Yerushalmi, murdered in Hamas captivity; and John and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was also murdered by Hamas terrorists.
In their appeal, the families declared:
“Only an independent state commission can investigate—without fear, bias, or political interference—the entire chain of failures that led to the national catastrophe of October 7, the failures during the attack itself, and every decision made regarding the abductees and the war.”
They insist the inquiry must scrutinize every layer of the disaster:
- the collapse of Israel’s defenses in the south,
- the paralyzing intelligence failures,
- the abandoned calls for help from besieged communities,
- and the hours-long abandonment of civilians and soldiers consumed by the inferno Hamas deliberately unleashed.
The October Council, representing families of hostages and victims, issued its own blistering message:
“We call on the Government of Israel to stop evading, stop delaying, stop covering up. Establish a state commission of inquiry now. We demand truth. We demand justice. We demand accountability.”
Their final warning was unmistakable:
“If you refuse to take responsibility and create the commission demanded by most Israelis, step aside and let the people decide.”
For many Israelis, especially those who survived Hamas captivity or lost loved ones to the terror organization’s atrocities, 800 days is not merely a marker of time. It is a reminder of unanswered questions, unresolved failures, and unhealed wounds—wounds inflicted not by a natural disaster, but by the deliberate cruelty of Hamas, a genocidal terror organization still holding Israeli civilians hostage.
The demand from the families underscores a national truth:
Israel cannot fully heal, cannot fully rebuild, and cannot fully defeat Hamas until it confronts, openly and courageously, the failures that allowed the darkest day in Israeli history to occur.
