Anonymous X user who threatened hostage families identified as local tycoon
Avi Goldreich, real estate mogul and longtime Likud activist, deletes ‘Beibars’ account after Channel 12 outs him as user behind calls to leave hostage families ‘crippled’
An anonymous account on social media platform X that called for violence against hostage families belonged to Avi Goldreich, a wealthy and well-connected Israeli businessman, according to an investigation by Channel 12 news and the Fake Reporter NGO that aired Sunday. The account has since been deleted.
Many suspected the account (@ag1212), which went by the username “Beibars” and used an image of Genghis Khan as its profile picture, was an Iranian bot, Channel 12 said.
So-called “Beibars” publicly wished for the death of Einav Zangauker, mother of Matan Zangauker, 24, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and remains hostage in Gaza.
The account also called on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel Police, to beat protesters and “leave them crippled.”
Goldreich, a real estate tycoon who lives in the coastal resort town of Caesarea, was active in the Likud party for decades, and was particularly close to Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Tourism Minister Haim Katz, the TV segment on Sunday reported.
Goldreich later supported far-right politician Moshe Feiglin, and today he says he supports Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister from the Otzma Yehudit party, the report said.
The businessman initially denied that he was behind the account, but ultimately admitted it after being presented with the investigators’ evidence.
Then, the network said, Goldreich told them, “Ms. Zangauker is murdering the hostages with her own hands, and her son too; best that she gets out of our lives, she’s done serious damage.”
Zangauker, 45, has been at the forefront of mass protests calling on the government to strike a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group, which abducted 251 people and killed some 1,200 when it attacked Israel on October 7 last year, starting the ongoing war.
Before the investigation was broadcast on Sunday, Goldreich sent another message to the network, explaining his position: “I believe that the protests by a portion of the hostage families harms the chances of freeing their loved ones, as such things only raise Hamas’s demands. Protesters at Kaplan [in Tel Aviv] who violate law and order are treated with silk gloves by law enforcement.”
Others have accused the police of being too brutal in their treatment of protesters, after several documented instances of excessive force, some of which have launched investigations.
In February, Zangauker reported that she and her son Matan’s girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was held hostage in Gaza for 55 days before her release in November, were hit by a police water cannon while protesting.
Protests calling for a hostage deal have been held every week for months, as Israel and Hamas have engaged in on-and-off negotiations, through intermediaries, over the release of the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and release of Palestinian security prisoners.
In May, US President Joe Biden presented a framework for a phased hostage release and ceasefire leading to the end of the war, to which both parties reportedly assented.
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that negotiators would attend talks on August 15 “to finalize the details of the implementation of the agreement framework.”
The terror group said on Sunday evening that it did not plan to send negotiators to Thursday’s talks, saying it took issue with proposed changes to the framework agreed upon earlier this summer.
But several Hebrew media outlets cited unnamed sources Sunday evening saying the Hamas statement was no more than a bargaining tactic, and some said Hamas was never meant to directly participate in the talks anyway.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
