'We can't forget' Vigils held for Israeli hostages

A mother is talking quietly, almost without emotion, a monotone. The microphone crackles but relays her words to the crowd gathered beneath the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

- Jason Burke

“We are here, but we cannot forget there are 240 people buried but alive under Gaza,” says Rachel Goldberg. “They include my son Hersh. He was at the rave party. He escaped to a bomb shelter. Hamas threw in grenades and shot. Most of the people he was with were killed but Hersh was alive.”

Her voice rises slightly. She has told this story many times, though not here, at the most important site for the Jewish faith. “Hersh was alive but his left arm was blown off at the elbow. He was put on a pick-up truck and taken into Gaza where he has been… ” and then suddenly “ for 32 days” Goldberg screams, her voice cracking.

A month after the 7 October attacks launched by Hamas from Gaza that killed 1,400 people mostly civilians – many Israelis are still reeling from what its president called the worst loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust.

Across Israel yesterday, there were candles lit in vigils and gatherings. Some brought the bereaved together. Others were in eff ect protests against the multiple failures of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s divisive, scandal-hit prime minister, and the far-right government he leads. The communities worst hit – the kibbutzim and towns in the south along the breached perimeter of Gaza – held their own private services in the makeshift accommodation that is now home.