President Herzog Addresses Memorial Ceremony at the Site of the Nova Festival

President Herzog: “We have the inherent right to defend ourselves and fight terror. But we yearn for peace, and we want our neighbors to live in peace as well.”

On October 7, 2026, President Isaac Herzog attended and addressed the memorial ceremony held at the site of the Nova Festival in Reim, where hundreds of festival-goers were murdered and abducted during the October 7th terror attack three years ago.

Prior to the ceremony, President Herzog made a statement to the international media:

“Here at the Nova Musical Festival, thousands of young people came to sing and to dance, to celebrate life. People of 36 nationalities, from all over the world and from Israel. They were horrifically butchered, killed, tortured, raped, and abducted into Gaza.

“We are here to tell their stories, and to remember, and reflect, and reminisce, and say to the world: we will dance again, we will live again. We are a nation in agony, but we are showing immense resilience. This whole region, which was attacked barbarically on October 7th, is now rebuilding.

“We are a nation like all nations. We have the inherent right to defend ourselves and fight terror. But we yearn for peace, and we want our neighbors to live in peace as well. And there is a pathway to that by implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2301, which calls for the disarming of Hamas. This should be the international goal, as well as combating the empire of evil from Tehran.

“I want to thank everybody who came here, and all those who have sent messages of condolences and share in our pain. Let the memory of those who were killed be a blessing to all of us.“