According to the President of the Republic, Katalin Novák, we Hungarians can never be indifferent to what happens to Israel. During his visit to Israel, the President of the Republic also met the relatives of the kidnapped Hungarian hostages.
Israeli President Jichák Hercog received Hungarian President Katalin Novák, who came to Israel on a solidarity visit, at his residence in Jerusalem on Sunday. Hercog emphasized that his Hungarian official partner arrived in the saddest period of Israel's history, one month after the "incomprehensible, barbaric, unacceptable" terrorist attack by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, in which the most Jews were killed in one day since the Holocaust. Hercog recalled the images of the babies, elderly and women dragged to the Gaza Strip, and thanked for the visit, stating that Israel will not forget that it stands by Hungary in these difficult times, nor that Teodor Herzl, who dreamed of the state, was born in Budapest.
Katalin Novák emphasized that Israel has the right to defend itself and condemned the attack by Hamas.
He called the horrors of the seventh of October shocking, and emphasized that everyone in Hungary condemns the images of terror, above party sympathy, and stands in solidarity with Israel, and assured the Israeli president of his support. He believed that one should not negotiate with terrorists, but in the fight against them, the lives of civilians should be protected.
Hercog emphasized that if Israel did not stand in the way of the terrorists, the whole of Europe would be their next target, and he confirmed that Israel supports humanitarian assistance to the civilians in Gaza.
He said that Hamas is in violation of the Geneva Convention and therefore they know nothing about the Israelis abducted from the zone, while Israel is creating a safety zone to protect civilians.
Katalin Novák emphasized both to the Israeli president and later to the relatives of the kidnapped Hungarian hostages that, as a mother of three children, the suffering of the hostages' families is particularly painful for her.
He assured the relatives of his deep solidarity and first listened to the account of the mother whose 8- and 15-year-old daughters were abducted by Hamas from a kibbutz near the zone on October 7.
He also got to know the story of a 47-year-old father with a small child, who was told by Hamas that if he goes with them without opposition, they will not kill his wife and children.
Since then, his family knows nothing about his whereabouts, similarly to the fate of the third Hungarian prisoner.
Katalin Novák promised that she would do everything not only for them, but to free all the Israeli hostages.
MTI
Cover photo: In the photo published by the Sándor-palota, President Katalin Novák (b2) met with the family members of the Hungarian hostages in Jerusalem on November 5, 2023
Source: MTI/Sándor-palota/Gyula Bartos
