Former minister supports releasing son’s killers in exchange for Gaza hostages

Izhar Shay, a former cabinet minister whose son Yaron Shay died fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7, tells thousands of people on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that he supports freeing his son’s killers and their accomplices if it helps secure the release of hostages in Gaza.

“Capital punishment would be a relatively light sentence” for Hamas terrorists responsible for the onslaught on October 7, the former science and technology minister says at the weekly Tel Aviv rally for the release of the hostages.

Shay, a high-tech entrepreneur who grew up in Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha near the border with Gaza, addresses his deceased son from the podium, explaining why, despite his loathing of the terrorists, he supports releasing them in exchange for the hostages. “Just as Israel owes you justice, it owes justice to the families of 134 hostages in Gaza, and this justice means bringing them all back,” he says.

“If we need to return the human scum who murdered you, for him to go back to the wasp’s nest in Gaza, we — all of your family — will give moral backing to the ministers and the prime minister to make a painful decision,” he says.