From the Liveblog of
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Hostage families claim Netanyahu ‘needs war to continue’ to avoid testifying in his criminal trial
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEinav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023 charges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs the war to continue so he can avoid trial.”
The prime minister will begin giving testimony in his criminal trial next month, weeks after a court denied his request to delay due to the time pressures of managing the current, multi-front conflict.
“The price is paid by 101 kidnapped people,” Zangauker says at the hostage families’ weekly press conference outside the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, ahead of the main anti-government rally at the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters.
"העם מבין שדם החטופים על ידיו של נתניהו, שהוא לא רוצה להחזיר את כל החטופים ולסיים את המלחמה. הוא צריך שהמלחמה תימשך כדי שיוכל להתחמק מהמשפט!"
עינב צנגאוקר, אימו של מתן החטוף בעזה כבר 414 ימים, בהצהרת המשפחות בשער בגין.
????????️ הצטרפו אלינו הערב | 23.11 | 20:00 | גשר בגין, הקריה pic.twitter.com/LLS70ma19r
— כולנו חטופים (@Kulanu_Hatufim) November 23, 2024
Yifat Calderon, whose cousin of Ofer Calderon has also been held in Gaza for 414 days, says that a $5 million reward for anyone who can assist in the release of Israeli hostages announced by Netanyahu earlier this month is in fact “endangering the captives’ lives” by instigating a “gang war at their expense.”
She calls for the government to secure a single-phase deal to free all of the 97 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 that remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
The Times of Israel Community.