Anger, protests, tears and courtesy as Netanyahu finally visits Nir Oz, worst-hit Oct. 7 kibbutz
636 days after Hamas massacre, freed hostage refuses to shake PM’s hand, urges him to show ‘responsibility,’ get the hostages home, launch state inquiry; Einav Zangauker embraces him and wife Sara
Six hundred and thirty-six days after the October 7, 2023, massacre, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday visited Kibbutz Nir Oz — the hardest hit community during the onslaught — for the first time, encountering angry and bitter residents, who nevertheless hosted him with courtesy and clung to the hope he will yet bring their loved ones home.
In the emotionally charged visit, Netanyahu and his wife Sara toured the kibbutz, walking through the ravaged, burned-out homes with residents and family members, who shared stories of the community, 117 of whose 400 residents were either kidnapped or murdered during the massacre. Nine residents are still held hostage in Gaza.
Despite or because of the widespread carnage, most government politicians, including the prime minister, have stayed away from Nir Oz.
With demonstrators gathered at the kibbutz entrance, Netanyahu’s convoy entered Nir Oz through a back gate, where signs calling him “Mr. Abandonment” were seen in the background.
Protesters were heard jeering the prime minister, calling him a “disgrace” and denouncing him as “corrupt,” an “abandoner,” and a “murderer” as the vehicles drove by.
During the tour, a protester with a loudspeaker denounced Netanyahu for the failures surrounding the October 7 massacre and the ongoing inability to bring home the hostages, vowing the community “won’t forget.”
During a sitdown at which the prime minister was largely silent, freed hostages and the relatives of victims of the kibbutz insisted that Netanyahu must end the war and bring all the captives home through an agreement, and confronted him over his refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7.
Nili Margalit, a nurse who was freed from captivity in November 2023, told the prime minister she promised five of the Nir Oz hostages she was held with that she would “do everything possible to get them out of there.”
ביבי מגיע לא מהכניסה הראשית של ניר עוז ומקבל קריאות מהמפגינים גם שם pic.twitter.com/vtOhcyjxC3
— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) July 3, 2025
She later told Channel 12 that she refused to shake the prime minister’s hand at the end of the meeting, explaining that she had apologized to Netanyahu for not doing so, but that “it hurts too much.”
“I saw, I was with them. It was possible to bring them back with a deal, and therefore, I am here for my friends who are still not here,” she told Netanyahu. Ariel [Cunio], and David [Cunio], and Eitan [Horn], and Matan [Zangauker], and all the rest — we need to bring them back before it’s too late. You have an opportunity to travel to Washington and sign a deal to bring everyone back. Everyone,” she said, referring to the prime minister’s scheduled trip to the White House next week.
“I want to speak about responsibility. For responsibility, you need to direct your gaze, you need to see, and therefore, this visit is important,” she continued. “But Mr. Prime Minister, where is your responsibility?”
Margalit said just as it had been her basic duty to take care of those held with her in captivity, the state had a duty to protect and save the hostages.
“I know what hunger, desperation, daily psychological abuse, and lack of hope are,” she stated. “I think the first step of taking responsibility is to establish a state commission of inquiry. The families of the fallen, the families of the murdered, the orphans, the widows, the bereaved siblings deserve it, to know what happened and is still happening in Israel over the past two years,” she said.
ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו ורעייתו שרה נתניהו, בביקור בקיבוץ ניר עוז: ״אני מרגיש מחויבות עמוקה להבטיח את חזרתם של כל חטופינו, ולפעול כאן לשקם את הקיבוץ הזה״https://t.co/9oHJ6Kzu7K pic.twitter.com/TURmZ37M4g
— ראש ממשלת ישראל (@IsraeliPM_heb) July 3, 2025
Yael Adar, whose son Tamir was murdered defending the kibbutz and his body taken to Gaza, urged the prime minister to demonstrate the same courage he had shown in the wars against Iran and Hezbollah in order to reach a deal to free the hostages. Just as he did not “eliminate the last of Hezbollah” or “the last of the Iranians” during the wars against them, she reasoned, “it needs to be the same here.”
“You know that when there is a need, you can go back there,” she said, implying that the military could return to fighting terrorists in Gaza after all the hostages are released.
“And this is the critical week, when I expect to hear that Tamir returns in the coming month, because he is [one of the] last [in line], because he is an IDF soldier. And before him, all those alive will be returned. Tamir returns home within a month,” she insisted to the prime minister.
While Netanyahu was seen listening quietly, the Kan public broadcaster reported that he also told residents: “From our point of view, there is an agreement, we are hoping to declare [the ceasefire] soon.”
Additionally, a video showed a warm meeting between Netanyahu and Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, and a harsh critic of the prime minister.
She was seen embracing the prime minister and his wife.
Zangauker is one of the main figures of the movement demonstrating for an end to the war and a hostage deal, and has frequently accused Netanyahu of actively torpedoing potential deals to free her son and other hostages, dooming them.
Analysts said that Netanyahu’s decision to finally visit Nir Oz was likely another sign that he was ready to reach a deal to end the war.
ראש הממשלה נתניהו ועינב צנגאוקר: תיעוד ראשון מתוך המפגש כעת בניר עוז pic.twitter.com/cHV1umfvVW
— almog boker (@bokeralmog) July 3, 2025
Netanyahu also met Matan’s girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was freed in the November 2023 ceasefire.
In a teary, heartfelt appeal, Gritzewsky urged the prime minister to reach a deal bringing all the hostages home: “I want to be rehabilitated, to live my life with Matan.”
“I defended the country, I was a combat soldier, and I will continue to defend the country, but one thing that can really bring back our honor is the return of the hostages, and all our soldiers. My brother is a soldier, so I live with the fear that I’ll also bury him,” she stated.
“So the moment has already come to bring everyone home, our soldiers and the hostages, so that, as the Jewish people, we can really be rehabilitated,” she said.
שורדת השבי אילנה גריצבסקי פנתה לנתניהו בדמעות במהלך ביקורו ניר עוז: "הדבר היחיד שיחזיר את הכבוד שלנו זה להחזיר את 50 החטופים ואת כל החיילים שלנו. אחי לוחם, ואני חיה בפחד שגם אותו אני אקריב"@Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/pSe27FUOxg
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 3, 2025
Danny Elgarat, another government critic whose brother Itzik was murdered in captivity and whose body was returned in February during the last ceasefire, confronted the prime minister with a photo of Itzik.
*תושבי ניר עוז בצעקות בזמן ביקור נתניהו: "תסביר למה הפקרת אותנו" pic.twitter.com/QzGgZTnfbf
— A dios Le pido ???? (@Yaronara) July 3, 2025
Elgarat later told media outlets that the prime minister didn’t know who he was.
“I told him, ‘Look at my brother in the eyes and tell him why you abandoned him.’ He looked, but in the biggest absurdity, the prime minister asked [government hostage pointman] Gal Hirsch who I was. He doesn’t know me,” Elgarat told the Ynet news site.
He added that the premier did not visit his brother’s home.
Ofri Bibas, whose brother Yarden was released in February, told Ynet that Netanyahu’s visit “came too late.”
“There are two words I am still waiting to hear from him: ‘responsibility’ and ‘sorry,’ but that was not the goal of the visit,” she said, accusing Netanyahu of touring the kibbutz due to political and personal interests.
Yarden’s wife, Shiri, and their small sons Ariel and Kfir, were murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists. Their bodies were returned in February.
Related: Israel fiddled while Nir Oz burned, but the kibbutz will rise again
In a video message from the kibbutz shared by his office, Netanyahu expressed his “deep commitment” to return the hostages still held in Gaza and to help rebuild the community.
“You feel, deep in your soul, the magnitude of the pain, the depth of the sorrow, the trauma that struck an entire community — and still strikes it,” Netanyahu said, alongside his wife.
“I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our hostages, all of them. Twenty lives are still being held, and there are still the fallen. We will bring everyone back,” Netanyahu continued, referring to the 50 hostages still held by Hamas.
A deal taking shape, backed by US President Donald Trump, would reportedly see 10 living and 18 dead hostages released during a 60-day truce, with negotiations then intended to secure the release of all remaining hostages and institute a permanent ceasefire. Trump is to host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
“But also, [there is] a deep commitment to act here to rehabilitate this kibbutz and bring life back to its people. We will cut through the bureaucracy — and rebuild,” he vowed.
In her comments, Sara described meeting US-Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, who was released during the previous ceasefire in February, saying that he “showed me his three-year-old daughter’s pacifier.”
“She and her seven-year-old sister and his wife held out inside the protected room. They held the door, put the young girl’s changing table — this sweet girl — against the door, and this is how they were saved, with heroism and resourcefulness,” she said.
“We then heard the story of his mother, who was taken hostage, and managed to escape and return to the kibbutz, which is another story about a courageous woman. I told him that he lives among heroic women. I think that alongside what the prime minister said, stories of devastation, the awful things that happened here, there being no words to describe the tragedy, there were stories of the astounding heroism of people, civilians, women and boys, and girls. There was simply resourcefulness, bravery; it is impossible to describe where the strength came from. There were awful tragedies here.”
Kibbutz Nir Oz also released a statement in response to the visit, stating: “We expect this visit to advance the return of the 50 hostages, among them nine from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and that the Israeli government will be committed to the rebuilding of the kibbutz and rehabilitation of its members wherever they choose to live.”
Opposition Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz said Netanyahu’s first visit to Nir Oz “is better late than never,” and concurred with the need to form a state inquiry.
“The decision to go [to Nir Oz] is important, and now the time has come to form a state commission of inquiry,” said Gantz.
After visiting Nir Oz, Netanyahu and his wife also visited the nearby city of Ofakim, meeting with local victims of the October 7 onslaught, as well as with soldiers who fought off terrorists that day, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The Netanyahus, accompanied by Ofakim Mayor Itzik Danino, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen and Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, met local hero Rachel Edry, who calmly offered cookies to terrorists who invaded her Ofakim home on October 7, and her son Evyatar. They also lit memorial candles and meet bereaved families.
“There were supreme acts of bravery here by men and women who showed up at the right moment,” Netanyahu said in remarks provided by his office. “I think the nation of Israel is showing immense mental strength, valor and bravery, and a great striving for life in the face of those seeking to destroy us. Our willpower is stronger than theirs, our fighting power is stronger than theirs. And in the end, this spiritual power of ours is defeating them.”
He said Israel would return “all our hostages” and “eliminate” Hamas.
The Times of Israel Community.