Hostage’s father confirms PM told groups of families different things on prospects for deal

Dani Miran, whose son Omri Miran is held hostage in Gaza after being kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, confirms that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told two separate groups of relatives different things about the prospects of a potential deal.

Netanyahu met separately on Sunday evening with two different hostage family groups in Jerusalem — the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the majority of families, and the Tikva Forum, which represents a hawkish minority who have been significantly more supportive of the government’s handling of the war than the main forum.

Dani Miran tells Channel 12 that Omri’s wife Lishay was in the first meeting, in which the premier said that a deal was brewing.

He says that his two sons attended the second meeting and heard that “at this stage there is no deal.”

Miran says the meetings were held approximately an hour apart.

The issue was raised when Netanyahu lashed out at the media in a press conference on Monday at which Channel 12’s Yollan Cohen attempted to highlight that she spoke to families he met with in the two separate meetings and that they told her he said different things.

Netanyahu, who had already accused Cohen of “lies” in her reporting, interjected that “it’s hard for you to hear the truth,” before his spokesman moved the press conference on to the next question.