The 1,000th day since the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023, was marked by a series of memorial events in Israel, which symbolically began at 6:29 a.m. at Kibbutz Reim on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian organization’s attack first took place. 

Memorial events were held in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and many other cities across the country. They were organized by associations of relatives of the attack’s victims, whose main demand was the establishment of a commission of inquiry to hold accountable officials from the government, the military, and the security services. The events culminated in a rally scheduled for 8 p.m. in downtown Tel Aviv.

With a pre-election atmosphere, but without a partisan identity

Although today’s events were not organized by opposition parties, the protesters’ demand for the establishment of a investigative committee coincides with the opposition’s demand, on which both the government and Netanyahu himself have taken a stance, arguing that now is not the right time to assign blame while the war is ongoing. 

In any case, however, the atmosphere of today’s protests and demonstrations centered on this demand is in fact strongly shaping the informal pre-election period that has already begun, with parliamentary elections expected to take place this coming October. The exact date of the upcoming parliamentary elections has not yet been set by the relevant Knesset parliamentary committee responsible for this matter.

A New Chapter in Lebanon-Syria Relations

Today’s official visit by the Syrian Foreign Minister to Lebanon is considered significant. Syrian Foreign Minister Al-Sayyabani met with Lebanese President Aoun, Prime Minister Salam, and, as required by protocol, with the Shiite Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri. He also met with political leaders from the country’s Christian and Sunni Muslim communities. However, as reported by local media, the Syrian Foreign Minister did not meet with officials from the political wing of Hezbollah “due to a lack of time,” as reported.

The main tangible outcome of Al-Saibani’s visit to Lebanon today was the agreement between the governments of Beirut and Damascus to establish an intergovernmental committee that will coordinate and resolve issues of bilateral interest in many sectors, including security and defense.

The focus is on the disarmament of Hezbollah

According to well-informed Lebanese and Israeli sources speaking to Alpha Cyprus, although the issue of disarming Hezbollah was not mentioned in any official statement or announcement today, it was one of the most fundamental topics discussed. Although it had been implied in the recent past that the Syrian government could contribute actively to the disarmament of Hezbollah —an idea that President Trump himself had raised weeks ago— during today’s meetings between the Syrian Foreign Minister and Lebanese government officials, it became clear that the Syrian army will not be actively involved on the ground within Lebaneseterritory. However, it also became clear that the Syrian armed forces will maintain their increased presence along the Syria–Lebanon border in order to prevent any illegal transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah.

Watch Gabriel Haritou’s report from Jerusalem on tonight’s main news broadcast on ALPHA Cyprus with Dimitra Makrygianni