President Isaac Herzog sent a message to be broadcast a special rally held at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv entitled ‘United for Their Return’ on the eve of Tisha B’Av on Monday. In his remarks, the President said: "O Zion, weep bitterly for thy children. We recite this beautiful and sad lamentation every year as part of the Tisha B’Av service.
" "But this year," Herzog stated, "on , as we mark together thousands of years since the destruction of the Temple, we also mark ten months of pain since that terrible wound inflicted upon us by our enemies with monstrous cruelty, on the morning of Simchat Torah, it seems that even the lamentations suddenly take on a different meaning." "As if they were written from the very heart of the current Israeli reality, from our aching, worrying, yearning, and anxious hearts for our sisters and brothers, women and men, children and the elderly, parents and infants, Their cries must be heard in every corner of the globe." "Last Tisha B’Av, the winds of division and separation were blowing everywhere, threatening to ignite a war between us within our own home.
The winds of incitement, violence, and outbursts almost brought ruin upon this beloved house, almost set brother against brother," he continued. "Therefore, I appreciate this gathering," he stated further, "which in its entirety is an appeal for brotherhood and mending the tears we stand here together. We lament the terrible fractures: the fractures of the past of destruction and exi.