Hostage families, opposition decry reported plan to occupy Gaza as risk to captives

Hostage families and opposition lawmakers on Tuesday decried the government’s reported plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, even at the risk of endangering hostages still held there by the Hamas terror group.

“The direction in which the cabinet and government are heading will lead to all the hostages dying – of hunger, beatings and torture – or being killed during IDF operations,” said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in a sharply worded statement.

“In exchange, we’ll be ruling over two million Palestinians—paying for their electricity and water, building them schools and hospitals with Israeli taxpayers’ money,” he continued. “You annex — you pay. From that moment, everything is on us.”

“Reservists will continue paying the price of draft dodging,” Lapid said. “Taxpayers will pay the price of annexation.” Additionally, he warned that such a move would isolate Israel internationally and erase any hope of regional support for postwar reconstruction.

The Democrats leader Yair Golan, in a video posted to social media, said: “Dear parents – look at your children. If the disturbed, messianic vision of Smotrich and Ben Gvir is realized, your children, too, who are entering first grade, will fall in a forever war in Gaza.”

The former general further singled out Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, saying the two far-right officials “never wanted to return the hostages.”

“Smotrich and Ben Gvir always wanted occupation, settlement, and a military government in Gaza; to realize their fanatical vision, they will sacrifice the hostages, they will sacrifice the soldiers,” Golan said.

He warned that “anyone who opposes their total messianic insanity will immediately be painted as a traitor — exactly as they’re doing now to the IDF Chief of Staff [Eyal] Zamir, who a moment ago they were celebrating.”

The IDF chief is widely reported to oppose occupying the entire Gaza Strip.

Hostage’s mother: IDF chief should resign if plan approved

Anat Angrest, whose son Matan Angrest is held captive in Gaza, told Channel 12 that families of hostages are in touch with Zamir, and that she knows he opposes any action that will put hostages’ lives at risk.

“If the government decides to expand the war to areas where hostages are held, I expect Zamir to resign from his position and say clearly — I will not endanger the hostages,” Angrest told the network.

She also noted that her son Matan is a soldier, for whom Zamir is responsible, saying, “I don’t believe that, as his commander, [Zamir] would send soldiers, not to rescue a wounded [soldier] in the field, but rather to endanger and kill him.”

Still, Angrest said she is afraid the government will go ahead with the controversial plan, noting that “they replaced all the security officials who supported a deal some time ago,” referring to the government’s ousting of former defense minister Yoav Gallant, former Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

“I’m also hearing from soldiers who are fighting, that they get the sense the plan is to tear-down-and-rebuild, that little by little, they’re knocking down another building and another building, and preparing the ground to realize the fantasy of new settlement,” she said.

Gal Gilboa-Dalal, whose brother Guy Gilboa-Dalal is held captive in Gaza, told Channel 12, “We can’t give ourselves permission” to endanger the hostages through military operations where they are held, adding, “We have to get them out alive, those who have survived until now.”

“At the same time, I don’t believe in sitting and waiting for Hamas to give them over,” he said. “It won’t happen. Without military pressure, they won’t return. I hope we know what we’re doing.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered Tuesday for a sit-in on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, outside the Defense Ministry headquarters, led by Shift 101, the mostly silent, white-clad activist group.

The protesters, led by Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen and Maccabit Meir, aunt of hostages Ziv and Gali Berman, along with others, marched to Kaplan Street from Dizengoff Square.

“This government is ruining all of our values,” said Cohen. “We’re hearing talk about conquering Gaza, that will be a death sentence for our hostages, it will turn them into Ron Arads,” she added, referring to the Air Force navigator captured in Lebanon in 1986 and never released. “We can’t allow that to happen, and that’s why we’re here to continue fighting, to say, ‘Enough, stop.’”

Cohen told Netanyahu that the time has come to stop with his desire for revenge, to listen to the people and stop the war, and return all the hostages so that Israeli society can begin rebuilding itself and burying its dead.

Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel, said she did not have a lot to say, except that she misses her son immensely.

“I so miss him that sometimes I forget how it is to be the mother of Alon,” said Ohel. “It’s hard to speak, it’s hard to stand, it’s hard to walk. The hardest is to breathe, knowing your son is in that place. I don’t wish this upon anyone.”

At the end of the demonstration, the protesters sang a song to mark what would have been the sixth birthday of Ariel Bibas, taken captive with his mother and younger brother on October 7, 2023, and killed in captivity. His body was returned for burial in February.

Dozens of protesters also briefly blocked traffic on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway.

Hamas said able to detect IDF troops if they near hostages

Channel 12 also reported on Tuesday that freed hostages have warned security officials, as well as the families of captives still held in Gaza, that Hamas has technological means — such as cameras with sensors, or bombs ready to be set off — to detect approaching IDF forces.

There is precedent for Hamas killing captives when Israeli soldiers are nearby: Last summer, Hamas captors murdered six hostages who were held in a tunnel under the southern city of Rafah, as the IDF operated in the area. Days later, the hostages were found dead.

The war in Gaza began October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Twenty hostages are still believed to be alive in captivity, while twenty-eight have been confirmed dead, and Israel has expressed grave concern about two more. The figures include the body of a soldier killed in 2014.

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group also freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.

In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 49 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.