Ex-hostages implore Netanyahu to secure deal but PM says there isn’t one on the table
Premier tells former captives that those claiming Israel rejecting offers are lying; PM’s wife: Army to blame for Oct. 7; former hostage: ‘A leader is responsible for the army’
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Former hostages along with family members of captives still held in Gaza implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign an agreement to free their loved ones at a heated meeting on Friday during which the premier insisted that no deal was currently on the table.
Netanyahu’s remarks tossed more cold water on the ongoing hostage negotiations, which the US has sought to frame in an optimistic matter, even as the sides remain far apart on key issues.
In a recording of the Friday meeting leaked to Channel 12, a daughter of one of the hostages can be heard telling the prime minister, “You can be remembered as the one who led the country to a better place or as the one who wreaked havoc here. You are the prime minister and you are responsible for the abductees, not Hamas and not anyone else. You are supposed to reach a deal that will bring all the abductees.”
“What’re you proposing that I do?” Netanyahu responded.
“I’m proposing that you sign a deal that will bring the hostages home,” the hostage’s daughter said. “There’s a deal on the table!”
“What deal? Which deal?” the premier shot back. “Whoever told you that there was a [hostage-ceasefire] deal on the table and that we didn’t take it for this reason or that reason, for personal reasons, it’s just a lie.”
Early last month, Hamas submitted a hostage deal proposal that for the first time saw it cave on its main demand that Israel commit up-front to a permanent ceasefire. In exchange, it made a series of amendments to the previous Israeli proposal.
Netanyahu rejected many of the changes and went on to issue his own new demands, including that the IDF maintain its presence in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border in order to prevent weapons smuggling. He also has insisted that a mechanism be established to prevent armed Gazans from returning to northern Gaza across the Netzarim Corridor carved out by the IDF across the Strip. Both demands have become sticking points that the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have worked to overcome.
Israel’s security chiefs have privately been arguing that they could manage a full IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor and from Netzarim, at least for the duration of the deal, and believe that the concession is worth making in order to save the remaining living hostages before it is too late.
A US bridging proposal submitted last week tries to compromise on the issue of Israeli troop deployment, but two Arab officials from mediating countries told The Times of Israel that it over-catered to Jerusalem’s concerns. A Netanyahu aide said the US offer indeed addressed Israel’s security needs, which is why Netanyahu accepted it. The mediators have held talks in Cairo over the past week with an Israeli delegation to try and move the talks forward. They’re slated to meet again later this weekend, but Hamas has yet to accept the US bridging proposal, indicating it is only willing to accept a deal based on the terms it presented on July 2.
Earlier this week, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages killed in captivity. They were all known to be alive as of earlier this year.
“They’re dying, and every day you’re killing someone else,” a former hostage told Netanyahu in the recording of the Friday meeting leaked to Channel 12. “Twenty hostages entered alive and you brought back 20 of them dead.”
In between outbursts of dissatisfaction from the group, Netanyahu interjected, “I’m trying to come to a deal that will maximize the number of [living] hostages released. I won’t [agree to a deal] for 12 hostages… because I’d just be leaving people there who are sick, who are elderly, the devil only knows. Would you do a thing like that? I won’t.”
Netanyahu went on to assert that caving to Hamas’s demands, including the one regarding the Philadelphi Corridor, would mean Hamas wins the war and provide a major boost to the anti-Israel axis. The premier said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is determined to continue fighting, calling him a “psychopath.”
“You’re also completely stuck in your own ideology,” a former hostage shot back.
It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
At another point in the meeting, one of the former hostages lamented that Israel has been allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.
To which Netanyahu retorted, “There are many things we want and they’re hard to get. For example, I’d like to walk to Italy on foot in a straight line… so if that’s what we need to do, it means drying up the ocean, so ‘let’s dry up the ocean, what’s the problem?’”
Participants also slammed Netanyahu for failing to visit any of the kibbutzim along the Gaza border that were among the hardest hit on October 7 but are also broadly regarded as part of a political camp that rivals that of the prime minister.
“Ask him if he knows where on a map Nir Oz is located. Do you know where we live? Did you ever visit us?” one of the former hostages can be heard saying.
“I know where Nir Oz is,” Netanyahu quietly responded.
“You know where it is, but do you want to come with me on a tour to see where we were kidnapped? While all of my neighbors were screaming and the entire kibbutz was burning, nobody came. Do you want to come with me on a tour and I’ll show you the suffering I endured?”
“Why didn’t you apologize?” another former hostage asks.
“I actually did,” Netanyahu responded. “I think the blame will be divided quite well later on.”
“I did not receive an apology. You didn’t take responsibility,” the ex-hostage said.
Sara Netanyahu blames the IDF
The prime minister’s wife Sara Netanyahu was also present at the meeting and could be heard verbally sparring with the former hostages.
When the conversation shifted to a question regarding responsibility for October 7, Sara Netanyahu insisted the army deserves the blame.
“A leader is responsible for the army,” one of the former hostages responded.
“When they don’t tell him anything, how is he supposed to know?” Sara Netanyahu charged.
Sara Netanyahu also claimed she is constantly misquoted and slandered in the press and that this never happened before she was married to the prime minister.
“I was Sara Ben Arzi and no one told lies about me. I lived a normal life,” she said.
A former hostage interrupted, “I also lived a normal life until I was kidnapped with my partner.”
The hostages were kidnapped on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
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 30 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.
Several of the hostages in Friday’s meeting held a press conference afterward, with one sharing that Netanyahu told them he would do everything he could to bring the rest of the abductees home, while others said they didn’t leave the meeting optimistic.
Ella Ben Ami, whose mother Raz Ben Ami was freed from Hamas captivity during a week-long truce in November and whose father Ohad is still held in Gaza, said she was not convinced that the government will be able to close a hostage deal.
“We asked the prime minister to look us in the eyes and promise to do everything, and if it depends on him, not to give up until they return here alive. We received a nod and confirmation from him. We ask the Prime Minister to keep his commitment and bring them home. We understand that this is probably the last opportunity before we enter a large-scale war, and we want to see our loved ones at home,” she told reporters.
“Personally, I left with a heavy and difficult feeling that this isn’t going to happen soon, and I fear for my father’s life, for the girls who are there, and for everyone. With all the disinformation we hear, we no longer know what’s true and what’s not,” Ben Ami added.
“We had a long meeting with the prime minister,” said Yelena Trufanova, who was released from Hamas captivity on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We shared all our pain, and I hope we found a listening ear. Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu looked me in the eyes and said he would do everything to bring my only son and all our loved ones home alive.”
Yelena was kidnapped along with her 73-year-old mother Irena Tati and son Sasha from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. Her husband Vitaly was murdered during the rampage and Sasha is still being held hostage in Gaza.
It is now believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. 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.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
