The Knesset on Monday held an event honoring families of those killed or taken hostage on October 7, 2023, and during the subsequent war in Gaza, limited to those who supported the government’s war policy. Families who took to the streets in weekly protests against the government throughout the war were not invited.

The event, organized by far-right Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal, was described as “an event saluting those who raised the nation’s spirit during the War of Revival,” and included a video address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The premier and other members of the government who participated in the event praised the honorees — members of the Tikva and Gvura forums, who opposed deals with Hamas to end the war and release Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the phased release of hostages.

The groups opposed the hostage-ceasefire deals reached in November 2023 and January 2025, but backed the October 2025 deal brokered by the US; the latter agreement mandated all hostages be returned at the same time, and was conceived of as part of a larger plan calling for Hamas’s disarmament.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who participated in the event on Monday, said that members of the forums “stood against voices calling for defeat and surrender, who weakened the nation and strengthened – despite the best of intentions – Hamas,” according to quotes in the Haaretz daily.

The far-right minister said those “voices” prolonged the suffering of the hostages.

The Tikva Forum, representing a minority of the hostages’ families, was a counterweight to the larger Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which headed weekly Saturday night protests calling for a hostage deal.

The Gvura forum’s posters, which depicted fallen soldiers and called for fighting Hamas........

© The Times of Israel