Coalition blocks bill for immediate financial aid to released hostages, bereaved families

By Ariela Karmel

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26 November 2025, 6:49 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

A view of the plenum hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on November 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

The coalition has voted down a bill proposing immediate financial assistance for released hostages and families of murdered hostages. The proposal by opposition MK Pnina Tamano-Shata of Blue and White fails 50-40.

The bill would grant an NIS 4 million ($1.2 million) aid package to released hostages and their families, several of whom have reached out to the public to ask for donations to supplement the state-funded stipends and grants that each abductee returned from Gaza receives to cover their rehabilitation.

After the vote, Tamano-Shata criticizes the coalition, saying it “turned its back on the released hostages and the families of the fallen.

“They have already endured unimaginable suffering,” she says in a post on X. “The government refuses to give them the protection and economic security they need and leaves them to depend on the goodwill of the public. I will continue to act in every way until the hostages and their families receive the full support they deserve.”