Family of Carmel Gat: ‘Victory won’t be measured by how many terrorists we eliminate, but by how many hostages we bring home’

In a statement after the IDF announced tonight that two terrorists who likely murdered six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip last month were killed by Israeli troops, the family of one of the six, Carmel Gat, says, “Israel’s victory will not be measured by how many terrorists we eliminate, but by how many hostages we bring home.”

The family thanks the IDF soldiers for “risking their lives in impossible conditions for 11 months,”  and adds: “It would have made no difference to Carmel if those who murdered her, or murdered her mother [Kinneret at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7], are alive or dead. She would have wanted to know that the hostages returned home alive.”

“There is no comfort in revenge,” the family adds. “The answer to Carmel’s murder is not revenge against the murderers. The answer to death is not more death; it is life.

“The only response to the murder of Carmel must be a deal that brings the hostages home, and prevents regional escalation before it is too late,” the family adds. “That’s the difference between us and our enemies. They sanctify death. We sanctify life.”