'If this isn’t a massacre, what is?': Ex-hostage decries removal of 'massacre' from Oct. 7 bill
Former Gaza hostage Or Levy also commented on government attempts to block the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre and related national security failures.Former Gaza hostage Or Levy spoke out against an Israeli government decision to remove the term “massacre” from official legislation regarding Hamas’s October 7 terror acts during an interview with KAN Reshet Bet on Monday.Levy was held in captivity by terrorists in Gaza for nearly 500 days before his release in February 2025, and his wife, Einav, was murdered by Hamas during the massacre.He stated that when he saw headlines about the government's push to remove the word from a bill establishing a national day of commemoration for the attack, he thought it was a mistake.“I heard ministers talking about how we shouldn’t portray ourselves as victims and that we weren’t massacred, so it’s important for me to say, I was there. They massacred me and my wife,” Levy stated.“There is no other way to describe it. If this isn’t called a massacre, then what is? Soon they’ll say the Holocaust didn’t happen.”Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas terrorists as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, February 8, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)Levy 'enraged' at government 'trying to change history'Levy additionally commented on government attempts to block the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre and related national security failures.He recounted visiting the bomb shelter from which he was kidnapped on October 7 with IDF investigators. “I sat with two incredible investigators, but they told me, ‘We don’t know,’ ‘There’s no information,’ ‘We assume.’ It’s the year 2026. We’re supposed to know everything, apparently, they don’t want to.”The words of the investigators and the government's reluctance to greenlight a probe did not make Levy feel reassured that such an attack wouldn’t happen again, he said, adding, “feeling that they are disgracing my wife’s memory enrages me. Feeling that they are trying to change history enrages me.”
