Lashing out at hostages’ families, Likud MK says he wonders how they’ll spend their free time once loved ones are back

Likud MK Eliyahu Revivo lashes out at relatives of the Gaza hostages during a meeting of the Knesset Special Committee on the Rights of the Child, and asks how they’ll manage to fill their spare time once the hostages are returned.

He makes the remark after Yosef Engel, the grandfather of ex-captive Ofir Engel, inquired as to why lawmakers who believe in the importance of recovering the hostages haven’t threatened to dissolve the Knesset over the issue, as the ultra-Orthodox parties are threatening to do over the issue of Haredi military conscription.

“For Haredi conscription, they’ll dissolve the government, but you won’t dissolve the government for the hostages,” says Engel. “If this is so important to you, why won’t you dissolve the government because they’re not [bringing them back]?”

He posits that doing so would have ensured the release of the hostages within a week.

Revivo doesn’t answer the question, saying instead that he is “just interested to know what you’ll do in your day-to-day life once the hostages return?”

The comment is met with outrage from the families, with one saying they “wish to God we could reach that day already.”

Vicky Cohen, the mother of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen responds to Revivo on X: “Since you’re curious, this is what I’ll do after Nimrod returns: I’ll go back to sleeping at night without sleeping pills, I’ll finally be able to eat, I’ll no longer have constant anxiety, but above all else, I’ll hug Nimrod nonstop — that’s what I’ll be busy with.”

ח״כ רביבו, מכיוון שאתה סקרן, זה מה שאעשה אחרי שנמרוד יחזור:
אחזור לישון בלילה בלי כדורי שינה, אצליח סוף סוף לאכול, כבר לא אהיה בחרדה תמידית, אבל מעל הכל: אחבק את נמרוד ללא הפסקה – בזה אני אהיה עסוקה#היכן_הילד_שלי

— ויקי כהן, אמא של החייל החטוף נמרוד כהן (@bringnimrod) June 10, 2025

The Likud MK, whose interactions with hostages’ families have drawn backlash in the past as well, says following the exchange that he wasn’t referring to the hostages’ families but rather to those who “cynically exploit the families’ pain” in order to “attack the government.”

In January, Revivo lashed out at Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, who said he was willing to go to the International Criminal Court and say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for “war crimes” against not only Palestinians but also Israelis.

Revivo, in response, shouted at Cohen, “Your contemptible words are condemning your son to the Hamas dungeons for many more years. Who do you think you are?”