Hostage’s relative asks Netanyahu if Israelis understand Gaza captives are being raped
In fresh comments leaked from heated Friday meeting, premier tells relatives and former abductees he spent time as a simulated hostage in army exercise
The relative of a hostage held in Gaza asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he or other Israelis understand that women are being raped while in terrorist captivity in the Palestinian enclave, attempting to push him toward a nascent truce and hostage release deal, according to leaked comments broadcast Saturday.
The comments were the latest to emerge from Netanyahu’s heated Friday meeting with ex-hostages and relatives of captives, after an earlier report detailed the premier’s insistence that no deal was currently on the table and his attempts to ward off accusations that he has shirked responsibility for the events of October 7.
In a recording of the meeting leaked to Channel 12, a relative of one of the hostages can be heard telling the prime minister that the president of the United States cares more about the sexual violence carried out against hostages than he or other Israelis.
“Do they understand in Israel that girls there are being raped now? Do you understand that? Because [US President Joe] Biden understands that,” she said during the meeting, which included both former hostages and family members of captives still held in Gaza.
A former hostage at the meeting told the premier she had been beaten and tortured while in the hands of Hamas, according to the recording.
“There’s nothing more brutal than what we went through,” she said. “I can’t stand that the girls there are suffering.”
Netanyahu replied by describing his time in simulated captivity during a training exercise in the military, in an apparent attempt to relate to the families, while admitting that the instances were not the same.
“Hearing your stories is shocking,” he can be heard saying. “I was in a hostage simulation, they beat me, it didn’t affect me too much and really hurt. I knew I was in an exercise, so I’m going to be hit. I knew I wasn’t really in life-threatening danger, and that’s a huge difference, which adds to the suffering and everything else.”
In comments from the meeting previously reported by Channel 12, Netanyahu parried demands that Israel agree to a deal freeing the hostages by insinuating that no such agreement was on the table.
The 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.
“What are you proposing that I do?” Netanyahu could be heard responding after a relative of hostages said his job was to reach a deal returning the hostages.
“I’m proposing that you sign a deal that will bring the hostages home,” she 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 the terror group cave on its main demand that Israel commit upfront 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.
In between outbursts of dissatisfaction from the group of hostages and relatives, 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.”
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.
The hostages were kidnapped on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages 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 weeklong truce in November and whose father Ohad is still held in Gaza, said she was not convinced that the government will be able to reach 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,” Ben Ami added. “With all the disinformation we hear, we no longer know what’s true and what’s not.”
Lazar Berman and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
