Likud candidate says he wishes he could ‘return’ ex-hostage Yocheved Lifshitz to Hamas

Likud Knesset candidate Itzik Bonzel said Monday that he wished he could “return” former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz to Hamas, after she disputed claims crediting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with securing the release of Israeli hostages abducted to Gaza during the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.

“I wish there was a way to turn back the clock and return you to Hamas,” Bonzel, one of nine candidates handpicked by Netanyahu for a reserved spot on the Likud slate, wrote on Facebook, directly addressing Lifshitz.

Bonzel was placed 29th on the Likud list for the October 27 election, meaning he is unlikely to make it into the Knesset. He has gained attention for vocal interruptions and protests at the Knesset and High Court of Justice.

“You simply did not deserve for our precious and holy sons to sacrifice their lives for you,” wrote Bonzel, whose son Amit was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023. “Your hatred of Netanyahu has driven you out of your mind, shattered every trace of morality and shame, and trampled the honor of those who rescued you at the cost of their lives.”

In response, Lifshitz accused Netanyahu of using Bonzel to attack her in an effort to distract from recent reports alleging he received multiple warnings ahead of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror onslaught.

“Netanyahu sent his handpicked candidate to incite against me so that people won’t talk about the warnings he received and the warning calls he personally got that could have prevented the catastrophe,” she said, adding that the premier’s “lies and smears won’t help him. The people of Israel understand very well that he is responsible for the catastrophe.”

A series of recent reports have alleged that Netanyahu was directly warned of a potential Hamas attack before October 7, including by United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Egypt’s then-intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

Netanyahu, who has not taken direct responsibility for the failures surrounding the attack and has instead placed blame on the military and intelligence establishment, has denied receiving warnings from either country.

“He abandoned me on October 7, abandoned my husband Oded and the 45 other hostages who were abducted alive to die in captivity, and continues to harm our security,” Lifshitz continued.

Lifshitz, 88, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and released after 17 days. Her husband was one of 38 hostages abducted alive and subsequently killed in captivity, according to IDF data.

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s chief rival in the upcoming October 27 election, also condemned Bonzel’s remarks, calling Lifshitz “a hero” and the incident “yet another moral low.”

“Someone who handpicked a person who wishes for an Israeli citizen to fall into Hamas’s hands is unfit to lead this people,” added Eisenkot, who also lost a soldier son in the Gaza war, referring to Netanyahu’s decision to place Bonzel in one of his nine reserved spots on Likud’s electoral slate.

Bonzel later deleted the Facebook post and apologized for his remarks about returning Lifshitz to Hamas.

“As a bereaved father who lost his son in the war to return the hostages, it pained me to see the harsh remarks that disparaged our soldiers,” he said. “But in a storm of emotions, I wrote a sentence about Yocheved Lifshitz in the context of Hamas that I did not mean, and I apologize for it.”

Lifshitz had made no disparaging remarks about IDF soldiers in the interview that prompted Bonzel’s post, directing her criticism at Netanyahu and his handling of efforts to secure the hostages’ release.

In an interview with Channel 13 on Sunday, the ex-hostage called Likud’s claim that Netanyahu had secured the hostages’ return “one big lie.”

“The truth is that Miriam Adelson bought us for the $100 million she gave Trump and told him, ‘You will bring back all the captives,’ and that’s what happened,” Lifshitz said.

Adelson, an Israeli-American billionaire and major Trump donor, gave some $100 million to a pro-Trump super PAC during the 2024 campaign and reportedly lobbied Trump to free the hostages.

“His Majesty, the Israeli emperor, didn’t want the captives. It wasn’t good for them to come back and tell everything,” Lifshitz added.

Senior defense and intelligence officials repeatedly urged Netanyahu to show greater flexibility in hostage-ceasefire negotiations in 2024, warning that delays risked the lives of the captives and arguing that Israel could temporarily withdraw from Gaza without significantly compromising its security.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, National Security Minister Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, repeatedly threatened to bring down the government over proposed deals that would end the war. Ben Gvir later boasted that they had used their political power to prevent hostage deals from going ahead “time after time.”