Families of 17 hostages killed in Gaza demand PM stop using them for political clout

Family members of hostages who were abducted alive during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel and killed in captivity demanded on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party stop using their loved ones as part of his election campaign.

“If you have even a shred of humanity left, stop using our loved ones for election propaganda,” they demanded in an open letter to the prime minister, seven days before the October 27 election.

Netanyahu has repeatedly taken credit for bringing back all of the hostages who were abducted to Gaza on October 7 and before, without acknowledging that 46 of those who were abducted alive returned to Israel in coffins.

The families of 17 of those 46 hostages condemned in the letter his repeated claims to that end, arguing that the government was trying to portray the return of their loved ones’ bodies as a political achievement, despite them having been abducted alive.

“There were opportunities” to save their loved ones, they alleged, “but the political establishment made decisions that left them in captivity, and they paid for it with their lives.”

“Forty-six is not just a number,” the letter continued. “These are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, the people we loved most. They were abandoned in the hands of murderers, languished in Hamas tunnels, and died far from their homes and families.”

“You brought them all back? You did not bring our loved ones back. Their bodies returned in coffins,” the families wrote.

“Every time you repeat that sentence, you erase the terrible difference between those who returned alive to their families and those who never had that chance,” they added. “You are trying to turn the deaths of our loved ones into a political success story. But they should never have been abducted in the first place.”

The families accused Netanyahu of failing to take responsibility for the October 7 onslaught and its aftermath, saying that “for three years, we have watched you try to cover up the failure, evade responsibility, and rewrite history — history written in the blood of our loved ones.”

“If you are incapable of taking responsibility for the deaths of our loved ones, at least do not try to make political capital over their graves,” the letter stated. “Do not use their deaths to ask the public for another term in office.”

Among the letter’s signees was former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husband Oded was murdered in captivity, and her children.

Relatives of Noa Marciano, Alon Shamriz, Chaim Peri, Aryeh Zalmanovich, Yagev Buchshtab, Itai Svirsky, Elad Katzir, Guy Illouz, Carmel Gat, Itzik Elgarat, Alex Dancyg, Mia Goren, Ron Sherman, Nik Beizer, Yoram Metzger, and Avraham Munder also signed the letter.

Separately, billboards went up across Israel on Tuesday featuring the faces of the six hostages who were murdered in a Hamas tunnel under Rafah in August 2024.

The billboards feature photographs of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi, with “We did not return home” emblazoned over them in Hebrew.

The six were abducted together from the Nova music festival and survived close to 11 months of captivity before they were murdered by their captors on August 29, 2024. Their bodies were retrieved by the IDF two days later from a tunnel in southern Gaza.

Lobanov’s wife, Michal Lobanov, said in a video statement that the billboards were intended to remind people of the six hostages, all abducted from the Nova music festival, “who could have come back alive but did not.”

Michal was four months pregnant when Alex was taken hostage, and gave birth to the couple’s second child on her husband’s 147th day in Hamas captivity.

“The faces of our group of six are featured on billboards so that everyone will remember them, remember what we’re missing, and that they didn’t come back to us alive,” she added.

Sarusi’s mother, Nina Sarusi, also put out a video statement to accompany the billboards, this one addressing Netanyahu directly.

“I’m here today because of a sentence that outrages me and deeply hurts me,” she said “The sentence is ‘We brought back all the hostages — every last one of them.'”

“What do you mean, brought back? What do you consider bringing back? You brought them back dead. That’s what you’re being arrogant about?” she continued. “You could have taken pride in bringing them back alive because they survived for 11 months.  They could have been here, alive, but they aren’t.”