Five leaders of opposition parties joined thousands of protesters who packed into Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Saturday night to demand a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

The protest took place alongside the weekly demonstration at the nearby Hostages Square, where thousands demanded the return of the three remaining slain captives held in Gaza. That protest included speeches from two freed hostages and relatives of other captives.

The protest at Habima Square sought to unite Zionist opposition parties behind the demand for a state commission, which would be led by the judiciary, less than a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government voted to launch its own self-mandated inquiry.

The protest was organized for the second straight week by the October Council, which is made up of families who lost loved ones in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and are demanding a state probe.

In attendance was former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is considered the most credible challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Also at the protest were Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan, all of whom lead centrist or left-wing parties opposed to Netanyahu.

Avigdor Liberman, head of the hawkish opposition Yisrael Beytenu faction, who has undertaken efforts to coordinate between the anti-Netanyahu parties, did not attend.

Former MK and minister Izhar Shay, whose son Yaron was killed fending off the October 7 attack, called on the opposition leaders to insist on a state commission following next year’s election.

“I call on the leaders of the opposition parties to officially commit not to join after the election any government that does not promise in its basic guidelines to establish a state commission of inquiry immediately upon taking office,” said Shay, who served in Gantz’s Blue and White party.

He further called on potential investigators and witnesses to refuse to cooperate with the government-run probe, which he called a “whitewashing” committee. Critics of the effort say that the government that was in power on October 7 shouldn’t control the committee that investigates the attack.

“Don’t appear before a committee that has a mark of shame hanging over it and the blood of the fallen and murdered smeared on the........

© The Times of Israel