Hostage familes rail at Katz in Knesset, demand deal that will bring all captives home

By Sam Sokol 14 January 2025, 12:09 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza attend a discussion at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on January 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Representatives of the hostage families scream at Defense Minister Israel Katz, asking why their relatives are not on the list of those to be released under a potential deal being currently negotiated.

“They’re engaged in a selection,” yells one family member, referring to the Nazi practice of selecting those who would live or die in concentration camps.

Some of the family members wear a yellow Star of David with 7.10 on it, referring to the October, 7, 2023, Hamas assault.

The outburst disrupts a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in which Katz is presenting his proposal for legislation to exempt large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.

“I’ve been a Likud member my entire life,” shouts Hanna Cohen, whose niece Inbar Haiman was murdered in Hamas captivity in 2023. “I want her [back] for burial in Israel.”

“No Schindler’s list,” yells Cohen.