The State of Israel mourns the Bibas family, who were brutally murdered in Gaza and buried together.

Tens of thousands of Israelis lined the streets of Rishon Lezion on Wednesday to accompany murdered hostages Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas on their final journey. Maccabi players stopped their morning session at Kiryat Shalom training complex to release orange balloons which had become synonymous with advocacy on behalf of the Bibas infant hostages due to their orange hair.

Dor Peretz captained Maccabi on miserable night that saw his side suffer its’ third league of the season losing 1-0 to Maccabi Bnei Reineh at Bloomfield. Prior to kickoff, the club removed the shirt of Omer Shem Tov who returned from captivity after 505 days in Gaza as well as a minute of silence in memory of the four hostages (Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz). “This was the most important thing here today” Peretz said after the match. “We are playing football and try to win titles, fighting for them on the pitch while there are other people fighting for their lives and still battling. The most important thing is for them to return with god’s will as soon as possible.”

On the disappointing defeat to Bnei Reineh, Maccabi’s third of the season, Peretz said: “We didn’t expect to drop points here tonight. It is disappointing but we will have to raise our heads and move on.”

When asked about the team conceding goals early in the game, he replied: “It is true, we are all seeing the same Maccabi, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. We tend to concede too many unnecessary goals which is everyone’s responsibility and not a specific player. Sometimes it works and we bounce back and sometimes it doesn’t which is the problem.”

On the refereeing display that saw Orel Grinfeeld allow a controversial goal and deny Maccabi several penalties, Peretz said: “In my opinion besides the penalty which was a 100%, the rest of the referee decisions were good and he had a good game. A penalty decision can change the course of a game. I don’t want for a team like us to deal with referees in every game. It is not relevant to us. I want the decisions taken to be correct and if not then for someone who needs to correct them to deal with it. I would like to win with our form.”

Peretz then summed up and said: “We will analyze today’s match and understand what we did wrong, Next week we have a similar match against a side that also sits back so we will need to learn from these matches. We will move on now as this is Maccabi Tel Aviv – no spare moment to stay behind.”

Roy Revivo is set to make his 70^th senior appearance for Maccabi Tel Aviv during Saturday’s WINNER League home match at Bloomfield against Bnei Reineh. Revivo, who together with his teammates and coaching staff visited Kfar Aza and the Nova site during the week, revealed how this visit at the Gaza surrounding communities affected him. “The tour was very tough for me personally” Revivo said before explaining. “I had a close friend who was at the Nova party and fortunately he managed to escape. On the day we exchanged text messages, so to feel the magnitude of the place is something which I find tough to even talk about. When we were there, it was tough for me as I never expected it to be that way. I think it was important t be there and see how each one of us perceives it. When you are there, it is just different.”

Maccabi faced Bnei Reineh twice this season winning 2-1 in the league at Nof Hagallil before suffering a 2-1 defeat at Bloomfield to be knocked out of the State Cup. On the challenge Maccabi will face against Reineh, Revivo said: “We are aware of our previous encounters and can’t wait for this match. I think that this time round we will be more focused. The late goals we conceded in the Cup were caused by a lapse of concentration as the balls fell between us, so we will put our emphasis on that, and the coaching staff will prepare us in the best possible way.”

With Maccabi trailing Hapoel Be’ersheva by two points, a victory in the early kickoff match (17:30) could take Zarko Lazetic’s side to the top of the table at least until the leaders end their game away to Maccabi Netanya. On the possibility of capturing top spot, Revivo said: “We’d obviously like to be top and if you want to win the league you must be at the top of the table. So, it is important.”

On a season which started slow and was plagued with a knee injury that sidelined him between September and December, Revivo said: “At the start of the season when I returned from the Olympic Games it took me a while to recapture my form. I then suffered an injury but this is the life of the footballer and one has to recover from that, gain strength and move on. Now I think that I am back to my best form.”

On the challenge of facing Reineh that this season recorded victories over Maccabi, Be’ersheva and Beitar Jerusalem, Revivo said: “They are a good side, a tough team but if we do what we have to do properly, we will win.”

On Maccabi’s relatively youn g squad and its’ effects on the campaign, the 21-year-old added: ”In my opinion age doesn’t make a difference. Jude Bellingham for example is 21 years old and is one of the world’s leading players, do if you ask me age is not important once a player is ready.”

On Maccabi’s performance during last week’s 3-1 victory over Bnei Sakhnin, Revivo summed up: ”I must first thank the fans for pushing us with 10 men. I think we showed a lot of character as a team, and believed we could do it.”

While 500 days to the start of the war is marked all across Israel, Maccabi’s players staff, management and employees left their day jobs behind and travelled down south today (Monday) for a tour of the the communities outside the Gaza strip.

As part of the tour, the club officials visited some of the sites that were severely hit on October 7th. The tour began at Sderot, where one member of the security forces shared his experience from October 7th. The next stop was Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where 64 people were killed and 19 were taken hostage from a community of 1,000 residents, mostly civilians during the Hamas-led massacre. The final stop of an emotional day was the Nova site at Re’im where 364 were murdered and 44 kidnapped. After hearing about some of the atrocities and acts of bravery, the players placed scarves on the memory pillars of Maccabi fans who were murdered there 500 days ago.