Ex-hostage: Slain captive said Netanyahu won’t work to free us because we’re leftists
Adina Moshe says Chaim Peri told her in Gaza tunnel they weren’t priority for PM; says while she was protesting with other ex-captives, a man yelled ‘whores, shame they freed you’
Adina Moshe, a former Hamas hostage, said Friday that Chaim Peri, whose death in captivity was confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces last month, told her while they were held in a Gaza tunnel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not act to release them because they were on the left side of the political spectrum.
Speaking on Channel 12, Moshe, who was released during a truce between Israel and Hamas in November after spending 50 days in captivity, spoke of her experiences in Gaza.
Asked whether she believed at the time that Netanyahu was doing everything in his power to release the hostages, Moshe said, “For three days, only for the first three days out of the 50.
“One of the [Hamas members] would come and tell us ‘in another day or two’ you’re going home. It was obvious to us that that’s what had to happen. The next day, he would come and say ‘another day or two.’ I said alright, I need to get ready. On the third day, when he came and said the same thing, I said ‘enough, this will take at least two months,’ she said.
Moshe then told her that she argued with Peri, who told her that they would not be a priority for the premier and that they could be held in Gaza for years.
“Chaim Peri told me it would take two years. I told him ‘Why are you so pessimistic?’ We even argued. I told him ‘We have a country.’ He said, ‘We have Bibi, and we’re leftists.’ I told him, ‘I’m not a leftist. What does that have to do with anything? I’ve voted center my whole life.’ He answered ‘But you’re from Nir Oz.’ I told him, ‘Nir Oz also has Likud supporters.’
“I’m sorry, that’s what he said. I think it’s also terrible that I said that it would only take two months,” she said.
Moshe said that the prime minister had not spoken with her since her release, and noted that he still has not met with the Nir Oz community or visited the kibbutz.
“I don’t know why [Netanyahu] hasn’t visited Nir Oz, and I don’t want to blame him for not visiting. But he’s busy, busy with yapping,” said a clearly emotional Moshe.
Asked about what she thinks when she hears the term “reckless deal” for the release of hostages, Moshe said that when demonstrating with other former captives, a man yelled that they were “whores” who should have been left in Gaza.
“When we stand at the Kiryat Gat interchange, the hostages who returned from captivity, holding a sign saying ‘Deal Now,’ a driver came by, sticks up his middle finger and tells us, ‘Whores, it’s a shame they freed you,'” she said, clearly still shaken.
“I believed I wouldn’t respond to these things, but when someone comes and makes such a gesture at women, so this is ‘unity?’ Where’s the unity?” she asked.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped 251 people during their October 7 rampage across southern Israel, which also saw them kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
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 abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
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.
