Hostage families accuse Likud MK of ‘disrespectful behavior,’ aide shoves camera away
Approached outside parliament halls, Knesset deputy speaker Nissim Vaturi seems to scorn relatives’ concerns over starving captives, as assistant clashes with them physically
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Sunday condemned a Likud MK and his aide over what it described as an “attack” on protesters, insisting that “there is no place for violent discourse and disrespectful behavior toward the families of the hostages.”
Several relatives of hostages currently held in Gaza by Hamas approached deputy Knesset speaker MK Nissim Vaturi at the Knesset complex in Jerusalem and challenged him over his expressed opposition to a potential hostage-ceasefire deal.
Videos posted to social media showed what appeared to be Vaturi’s parliamentary assistant attempting to physically block one of the protesters from filming their interaction in a Knesset hallway.
Vaturi is one of eight Likud lawmakers who wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend that they would refuse to back a hostage release deal unless significant changes are made to the proposal.
“I and other family members approached him to ask him why he sent the letter,” Yuval Baron, the son-in-law of hostage Keith Siegel, was quoted as saying by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“The event was photographed by one of the family members. Chana, MK Vaturi’s parliamentary assistant, grabbed her phone violently. The MK joined in aggressively and pushed me and Inbal, the cousin of abductee Tal Shoham.”
The Times of Israel has not seen any footage of Vaturi’s direct participation in a physical altercation.
משפחות חטופים מאשימות: עוזרת של ח"כ ניסים ואטורי מנעה באלימות שיחה איתו | כשנשאל על הרעב בשבי ענה לקרובת חטוף: "את אכלת הבוקר?"https://t.co/hHpizpwhS7 | @DaphnaLiel
צילום: מתוך חשבון הטוויטר Avigdorii pic.twitter.com/BL9twfhz8l
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) July 21, 2024
In the video he seemed uninterested in engaging with the protesters as they assailed him for his opposition to a deal, and walked away as the aide tussled with the activist who was filming.
The protesters continued to follow Vaturi as he headed toward the lawmakers’ wing of the building, with Inbal Tzach, whose cousin has been held in Gaza since October 7, calling out to him that the hostages were underfed.
“What, the truth hurts? Believe me, captivity hurts more,” she called after him. “There are 120 people who haven’t eaten or drunk for nine months, they haven’t seen the light of day.”
Turning around, Vaturi shot off: “Did you eat this morning?” He then walked away.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, of whom 42 have been confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas is also holding the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza War, and two civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, and who are believed to be alive.
In their letter to the prime minister, Vaturi, along with fellow Likud MKs Amit Halevi, Hanoch Milwidsky, Dan Illouz, Moshe Saada, Ariel Kellner, Shalom Danino, and Tally Gotliv, demanded that a hostage-ceasefire deal see the release of all captives at once, rather than in several stages.
They also demanded that Israel not commit to withdrawing from the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza or the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, and that a significant IDF presence must remain along every significant route in Gaza.
While Netanyahu himself has recently added several “nonnegotiable” demands to the hostage deal, leading the negotiating team to reportedly pause talks until new clauses are drawn up, the Likud lawmakers said the deal currently on the table still crosses “the clear red lines of the coalition.”
The premier demanded earlier this month that Israel remain in control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah border crossing, to prevent weapon smuggling to Hamas across the Egyptian border, and insisted that armed groups be prevented from returning to the northern Gaza Strip when displaced civilians return in the first phase of the proposed deal.
Israel’s May 27 proposal — published in full by The Times of Israel last week — does not specify the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing as locations where Israeli troops will be allowed to remain, and its wording does not set out a mechanism whereby armed operatives would be prevented from returning to northern Gaza.
Last month, Vaturi charged that anti-government protesters, who have been regularly demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza, are a “branch” of Hamas. He later attempted to backtrack the comments, claiming they were “taken out of context.”
