Ex-IDF intel chief urges all Israelis to demonstrate against government’s ‘abandonment of the hostages’

Former IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin denounces the security cabinet vote on Thursday night that backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining the IDF’s deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor during the first six-week phase of any hostage-ceasefire deal, which Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told ministers would likely doom a deal and therefore doom the hostages.

Yadlin, a former Labor Party candidate for defense minister, tells Channel 12 that the decision means that the government has essentially said it will not uphold its “moral obligation” to bring home women, children and the elderly “who were kidnapped from their homes” on October 7, as well as soldiers.

“The hostages have been abandoned,” Yadlin says, calling the government’s stance “unacceptable.”

He says every Israeli should today “go out and demonstrate” against what he calls a “scandalous” situation.