From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 13, 2025
Likud lawmaker says hostage release ‘humiliating,’ calls for Israel to control Gaza
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Likud MK Amit Halevi calls the ongoing release of hostages from Gaza “humiliating,” speaking as the first seven freed captives were transferred into IDF hands this morning.
“How moving these moments are — and how humiliating they are. Oh, how humiliating,” he says in a statement.
“The nation should have bowed its head today and lowered the flag to half-mast,” Halevi says, adding that Israel should have announced “to Hamas and to the whole world that the Jewish people will not forget or forgive until the complete annihilation of the neo-Nazis in Gaza and the restoration of Israeli control over this strip of our homeland.”
Instead, he says, “we play into [Hamas’] hands with sugar-coated coverage that ignores the results of the war.”
Halevi’s remarks come a day after he, as well as Noam chair MK Avi Maoz, announced he would not attend US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Knesset today, which he called an “illusion of victory” and a “false spectacle.”
A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party, Halevi has long voiced skepticism over Israel’s wartime achievements, saying last year that the IDF overstated the damage it inflicted on Hamas.
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