Ex-hostage Yocheved Lifshitz accuses Netanyahu of inciting against her to distract from Oct. 7 warnings

Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using Likud Knesset candidate Itzik Bonzel to attack her in an effort to distract from recent reports alleging he received warnings ahead of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

“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,” Lifshitz says, 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.”

Bonzel earlier today said he wished he could “return [Lifshitz] to Hamas” after the 88-year-old former captive disputed claims crediting Netanyahu with securing the release of Israeli hostages.

“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 continues. According to the IDF’s final data, 38 hostages were abducted alive and subsequently killed in captivity.

A series of recent reports have alleged that Netanyahu was directly warned of a potential Hamas attack before October 7, including by the UAE and Egypt. 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.

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s chief rival in the upcoming October 27 election, also condemns 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,” Eisenkot says, referring to Netanyahu’s decision to place Bonzel in one of his nine reserved spots on Likud’s electoral slate.