The October Council held a press conference on Thursday ahead of next Thursday, which will mark 1,000 days since the October 7 massacre, titled "1,000 Days of Shiva (Seven/Mourning)."
The press conference was attended by bereaved families, families of hostages, survivors, and representatives of the families, who called on the Israeli public to stop, remember, and demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the greatest disaster in the country's history.
The organization of bereaved families and former captives, which advocates for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, announced that next Thursday, dozens of memorial, protest, and testimony events will take place across the country.
These will be accompanied by a nationwide minute of silence at 10:00 a.m., the "1,000 Days March," and a central rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, which will be reactivated for one day in honor of the 1,000th day.
The October Council emphasized that the 1,00th day is not an ordinary protest day, but one in which Israeli citizens are called upon to pause their routine and demand the truth.
"One thousand days after the massacre, after the hostages, after the communities were burnt, after the fallen soldiers, after the families were torn apart, and after the greatest oversight in the history of the country, a commission of inquiry still has not been established," the Council stated. "The October Council calls for all Israeli citizens to attend the memorials and protests, stop for the minute of remembrance at 10:00, attend the Thousand Days March and the central rally, and wear black on the Thousand Days."
Victims' families demand investigation into October 7
Eyal Eshel, father of the late surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who was killed in battle on October 7, declared, "1,000 days since the surveillance soldiers saw, warned, and pleaded for people to listen to them, and 1,000 days since the State of Israel chose not to hear them. How is it possible that 1,000 days later, there is still no state commission of inquiry?"
Hagit Chen, mother of the late Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, whose body was abducted after he was killed, also called for the government to establish the commission. "Itay fought bravely, was abandoned, kidnapped, and returned to us only after 760 days," she said. "If you did everything, why did it take 760 days to bring him back? And if you did everything, how have 1,000 days already passed and the Israeli government is still afraid of a state commission of inquiry?"
Itay's father added that "Anyone who said 'we will do everything' and does not demand a state commission of inquiry did not do everything. Anyone who refuses today to commit to a state commission of inquiry is telling us that their seat is more important to them than the truth. Anyone who fears an investigation probably knows why."
Inbar Goldstein, sister of the late Nadav Goldstein who was murdered together with his daughter Yam, as well as the sister-in-law of Chen, who was kidnapped along with her three children, demanded honesty and open communication.
"How can we build strong and resilient walls when so much of the truth is still buried beneath the ruins?" she demanded. "We are the generation of October 7, and the generation of October 7 does not leave its brothers and sisters behind - and not the truth either."
Yuval Zaushnitzer, widow of the late Roy Chapel, who was killed in battle on October 7, said, "Don't say this is a struggle only for older people or for bereaved families. This is the country in which we want to raise our children. Roy took responsibility when the country needed him. Now we need to take responsibility when the truth needs us."
"The head of the Shin Bet wants to erase the memory of the failure that led to my son's death," Reut Recht Adry, mother of Ido Adry, a Shin Bet operative who was murdered at the Nova music festival, said. "Zini, you are using politics and the blood of my child and of ten heroic Shin Bet fighters who fell on October 7 to serve the prime minister's agenda of abandonment and forgetting. You will not erase our children's blood."