Herzog visits embattled city of Sderot, urges international community to demand release of Gaza hostages

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the embattled Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday in solidarity with residents in southern Israel adjacent to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The Israeli president urged the international community to demand the release of the more than 100 Israelis and foreign nationals currently being held as hostages in Gaza by the Hamas terror regime since it invaded Israel on Saturday.

"We demand from the international community, and today I will meet with more leaders who are coming here and I will talk with more leaders who will come, to demand the immediate release of the hostages who are in Gaza," Herzog said.

"This is a minimal, basic, and reasonable demand of every human being and we will stand by it," the Israeli president added.

Herzog also praised the resilience of the Israeli people amid multiple terror threats on different fronts.

“Our people are showing bravery, courage and stamina. We will prevail against our enemies,” Herzog vowed.

On Thursday, Herzog held his first press briefing for the international media since the ruthless invasion by Hamas terrorists, which has claimed the lives of at least 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals.

He reminded his international audience that the Jewish state is 'facing an empire of evil.'

"We are facing an empire of evil which has its claws all around us," the Israeli president said and urged religious leaders worldwide to display moral clarity by supporting Israel.

“It is time for religious leaders around the world to speak out and stand with Israel. This is the moment of truth for nations to show moral clarity."

In a recent TIME Magazine column, Herzog described the Hamas massacre of over 1,000 Israeli men, women and children as the most lethal attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

“Not since the Holocaust have more Jews been murdered on one day," Herzog wrote.

"The number of dead in the Simchat Torah Massacre are still rising as Israel’s soldiers and rescue services discover more and more families murdered in their homes. Not since the Holocaust have we seen such images of innocent Jewish mothers and children, teenagers and old women loaded into trucks and taken away into captivity,” the Israeli president concluded.

Last Saturday, more than 1,500 Hamas terrorists succeeded in breaching the Israeli security barrier that separates the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip.

Given the scant number of Israeli combat soldiers stationed in the area at the time, local Israeli communities were defenseless and unable to repel the unprecedented brutal attack.

Like other pundits, Herzog compared the savagery of Hamas to ISIS.

“Not since the vile crimes of ISIS, have we witnessed such barbarity. Indeed, this is what Hamas have done: Imported, adopted, and replicated the savagery of ISIS. Whole families have been wiped out. Mothers and fathers, with babes in arms, murdered in cold blood. Young people at a party. Old people – even Holocaust survivors themselves. Massacred. Their bodies burned and abused.”