Gantz urges Netanyahu to call families of 6 murdered hostages
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Unity chief and former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately call the families of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were found and recovered by IDF forces operating in Gaza.
“Prime minister, it is a painful morning for all the people of Israel, but especially for six families. Farhan al-Qadi, who was freed, you called immediately, and for Noa Argamani you came to the hospital,” Gantz tweets.
“Call the six hostage families now and listen to them. This is the least they deserve. Don’t wait even a minute.”
This morning, the IDF announced that it had recovered the bodies of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.
Despite public comments by President Herzog and other Israeli politicians — as well as US President Joe Biden and US vice president and presidential nominee Kamala Harris — Netanyahu has so far remained silent.
Netanyahu’s office has stated that he will give a statement shortly.
“Two hours have passed since the publication of the names of the murdered hostages, and the fact that the president of the world’s greatest power issued a message of condolence and the prime minister of Israel did not tweet a word on the matter, only proves that Benjamin Netanyahu is running away from responsibility,” tweets Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, adding to the chorus of criticism of Netanyahu.
