“Jews around the world light the first candle of Hannukah, the Jewish holiday celebrating courage, perseverance, and the victory of good over evil,” the Israeli Embassy to Georgia said on Thursday.

According to the Embassy’s statement, “This Hanukkah, as Israel continues to fight against the terror organization Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Ambassador Hadas Meitzad together with the Rabbis and members of the Jewish community in Tbilisi, lit together the first candle of the holiday.”

“Yet again we wish for the victory of good over evil, for the victory of light over darkness. We all pray and call for the immediate release of all our hostages from the hand of the terrorists and we are certain that the light will defeat the darkness once again,” said Hadas Ester Meitzad, the Ambassador of Israel to Georgia.

She thanked the Georgian government and the people for their “steady” support for Israel.

The Embassy went on to say that “Ambassador Meitzad dedicated the first candle of Hannukah to the safe return of the Bibas family, Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, abducted to Gaza by Hamas on October 7. Kfir Bibas, the youngest, will soon turn 11 months old after spending two months of his short life as a hostage in the hands of a terrorist group. Kfir and his 4-year-old brother Arie, were kidnapped with their mother Shiri. The family became the symbol of the violence perpetrated against Israel on that bloody Sabbath.”

“Their innocent faces, as they disappeared from view in their mother’s arms into Gaza, is still haunting all of us,” Meitzad noted.