"Israel will celebrate this year’s Independence Day with heads held high and heavy hearts, not by ignoring the pain, but by recognizing it and choosing to keep going," former prime minister Naftali Bennett told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“We celebrate because we have a country, because we are a strong people, and because even in the most difficult times we know how to unite, to fight, to volunteer, and to support one another,” Bennett added.
Speaking on Remembrance Day, which leads directly into the eve of Independence Day, Bennett told the Post that while Israel remembers those who were lost, it also embraces the families who sacrificed “what was most precious to them, and we move forward even while our hearts still ache.”
He explained that it is “precisely in the face of those who tried to break us, we choose to be prouder, more united, more Israeli. With strength and hope.”
“And from here, we continue: to build, to repair, and to ensure a better future here,” Bennett added.
His party, Bennett 2026, has been trailing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in recent polls ahead of elections expected no later than the end of October.
Bennett, along with other opposition politicians, marked Remembrance Day by attending and speaking at various ceremonies throughout the country.
Lapid, Eisenkot honor fallen in Herzliya
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) attended a ceremony in Herzliya, where he was pictured embracing former IDF chief of staff and leader of the Yashar! Party Gadi Eisenkot, who lost his son in battle.
At the military cemetery in Herzliya, Lapid addressed bereaved families.
“You do not need a ceremony to remember. You came so that we can tell you: we have not forgotten,” he said.
“That the State of Israel remembers. That the State of Israel bows its head before its fallen, and before their families, and that we will do everything to be worthy of them,” Lapid added
Eisenkot marked the loss of his son, Master-Sgt. Gal Eisenkot, who was killed in combat in 2023 in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
He has said that the loss of his youngest son has pushed him to take action to better the country, and in September 2025, he launched his new party Yashar! ahead of the elections.
Eisenkot’s party has been gaining support in recent polls, rising as a top competitor within the opposition bloc.
Eisenkot posted on X/Twitter about the loss of his son, writing that the loss left a void in him and "the endless nothingness and the chilling realization that I will never see you again [Gal], burns through my soul.”
“In memory of the fallen, and in honor of the young generation fighting for the security, character, and future of the state, I say: it is our duty, ours all, to be worthy of the great and ultimate sacrifice they made for us. Being worthy is not a slogan; it must be a way of life," he continued.
“After Gal fell, I was forced to decide how I would cope. Naturally, there is a pull toward inward retreat and private mourning. But there is also a deep inner voice that commands repair and rebuilding,” Eisenkot stated.
He explained that when he stood over his son’s grave, he had sworn that the price he and his friends paid would not be in vain.
“Since then, with each passing day, I am increasingly committed to fulfilling that calling.”
Leader of the Yisrael Beytenu Party, MK Avigdor Liberman, took part in a Remembrance Day ceremony at the military cemetery in the northern city of Safed.
He said that he had stood alongside the bereaved families and “listened to a pain beyond words.”
Liberman also laid down a wreath in memory of the fallen soldiers and the ceremony.
“It is our duty to ensure that the fallen did not die in vain, and that the State of Israel knows how to defend its citizens at all times and in every place,” he added.
Leader of the Blue and White party MK Benny Gantz said at the state Remembrance Day ceremony in the southern city of Sderot that the current ceasefire with Iran and Lebanon is a “deceptive calm that will still require us to keep fighting on all fronts.”
“We will prevail over our enemies only if we are united within ourselves. This is the command of the fallen.”
“Sderot and the entire western Negev embody the life force of our people. This is a city that is growing, strengthening, building, and educating,” he added.
Leader of the left-wing Democrats Party Yair Golan, stated that throughout his years of service, he had accompanied many bereaved family members, and that from the pain of loss, "a sense of duty arises."
“A commander learns that death is not a passing event. It is always present. It is in a mother’s reddened eyes, in a father’s breaking voice, and in the voices of friends who speak of someone who was, and is no longer,” Golan stated.