For 2nd week, some hostages’ relatives accuse PM of standing in the way of a deal
Families of several Gaza captives say Netanyahu putting politics before their loved ones, kowtowing to far right, following announcement of another hostage’s death in captivity
Several families of hostages held in Gaza railed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday afternoon at a press conference outside the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, accusing the premier of playing politics with their loved ones’ lives.
The statement, the second direct attack on the premier by families after a similar press conference a week ago, was issued after the army announced that it had retrieved from Gaza’s Khan Younis the body of hostage Elad Katzir, 47, presumed to have been killed by his Palestinian Islamic Jihad captors in mid-January. It preceded widespread evening protests demanding a hostage deal at the six-month mark since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel that began the war in Gaza.
Yael Or, cousin of 49-year-old hostage Dror Or of Kibbutz Be’eri, read aloud a social media post by Katzir’s sister, Karmit Palti-Katzir, who said her brother “could have been saved had a [hostage] deal gone through in time,” but “our leadership is cowardly, so it didn’t happen.”
“Netanyahu is nixing [the deal] and the hostages are dying in captivity,” wrote the bereaved sister.
Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzik, 69, was snatched from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that Netanyahu was “putting spokes in the wheels” of talks to free the hostages by toughening his position and giving Israeli negotiators too little leeway to be effective.
“We all see how you are selling the public fantasies about [an operation in Gaza’s] Rafah, about victory,” said Elgarat, who was wearing a yellow star with the date October 7 written on it. Addressing the premier directly, he added: “Netanyahu — you are undermining the deal, and that’s why we are taking action, and will continue to take action toward your immediate removal.”
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan, 24, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, said that polling shows most of the public “think like us,” that Netanyahu is delaying an agreement with Hamas due to “political considerations.”
Zangauker said even supporters of Netanyahu’s Likud told hostages’ families they couldn’t understand why their party leader “doesn’t show leadership and bring about a deal. She added that many in Likud believe the premier has caved to the demands of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose position is “to abandon the hostages.”
“I address coalition members who have a conscience — please save us,” said Zanguaker. “Netanyahu is deliberately undermining the deal and he stands between us and our loved ones in Gaza.
“The hostages don’t have time…We must remove the obstacle for a deal now and immediately replace Netanyahu,” she added.
Families of hostages sought to maintain a relatively apolitical stance for some five months of war, but recently some have increasingly teamed up with anti-government protesters clamoring for elections. Those families’ move provoked the ire of some relatives of soldiers killed in Gaza and hostages’ families who support Netanyahu or who advocate for increased military pressure on Hamas.
Indirect talks on a hostage release between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, have floundered in recent weeks, after hope was dashed that a deal could be reached by Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, which ends on April 9-10.
Israel has rejected the Palestinian terror group’s demand for a permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, and unfettered return of displaced Palestinians to the Strip’s north.
On October 7, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and take over 250 hostages, while committing numerous atrocities.
Vowing to dismantle the Palestinian terror group, Israel launched an unprecedented offensive on the Gaza Strip. The ground operation has claimed the lives of 256 Israeli soldiers.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 32,000 people in the Strip have been killed in the fighting so far, a figure that cannot be independently verified and includes some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and other hostages were returned in other circumstances.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
