Ex-hostage Or Levy hits back at government pointman Hirsch: ‘We are to blame? Shame on you’

Former hostage Or Levy hits back after Gal Hirsch, the government hostage point man, said in a series of interviews that pressure from the Biden administration and mass demonstrations aided Hamas.

“Dear Gal Hirsch, I’ll start by addressing you, I’m not sure if you really know who I am because apart from the question of ‘Do you want to say something to Trump?’ you haven’t exchanged a word with me,” writes Levy, who was released last year after 491 days in captivity in Gaza. His wife, Eynav, was killed at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023.

“So yes, I wanted to say to Trump, thank you! For bringing me back. Not you, not the prime minister, not anyone. Nobody should take credit for what they didn’t do. When the documentation of us [in Gaza] (including what wasn’t published) came to you, you preferred to remain silent. Now it’s us who are to blame. Us! The ones you didn’t look after, the ones you abandoned!” he writes on Facebook.

“When I came back I heard the name Gal Hirsch a few times. Once he called my mother and asked her ‘would Or like to talk to the prime minister?’ So I said no. Because I don’t need favors from anyone. And now I see how the election campaign is the only thing that matters. Changing the narrative of what’s been going on here for more than two years,” he writes.

“Of course you will say Hamas wanted 10 years to negotiate, of course you will say you are not guilty. Of course you’ll try to paint a picture that you’ve got all of them back (yes, because bodies are counted in the same number) but it doesn’t matter,” Levy writes.

“So let me tell you something. The only reason we have a country is our people. These are the people the salt of the earth who go to reserve duty even when they know they are in constant danger of their lives, and the worst thing? Even when they receive instructions that don’t make sense because this war reeks of politics,” he says.

“Gal Hirsch, shame on you! Who are you to speak about us or our families? Who are you to say something to my 70-year-old parents, who had to tell a two year old baby that his mother was murdered and father “was lost”? Who are you to tell grieving parents that they could have their children alive but because of the negotiations, they lost their lives,” Levy says.