Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Sunday, July 21, 2024

MK to hostage families who said relatives going hungry in Gaza: ‘Did you eat this morning? So everything is fine’

By Sam Sokol 21 July 2024, 1:46 pm 7 Edit

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"

Likud MK Nissim Vaturi speaks during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on the ultra-Orthodox draft law at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on June 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi speaks during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on the ultra-Orthodox draft law at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on June 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum condemns deputy Knesset speaker MK Nissim Vaturi (Likud) over what it describes as an “attack” on protesters, stating that “there is no place for violent discourse and disrespectful behavior toward the families of the hostages.”

Several relatives of hostages currently held in Gaza by Hamas approached Vaturi in the Knesset this morning and challenged him over his opposition to a potential hostage-ceasefire deal.

Video showed what appeared to be Vaturi’s parliamentary assistant attempting to physically block one of the protesters from filming their interaction in a Knesset hallway.

Vaturi is one of eight Likud lawmakers who wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that they will refuse to back the deal unless significant changes are made to the proposal.

“I and other family members approached him to ask him why he sent the letter. The event was photographed by one of the family members. Chana, MK Vaturi’s parliamentary assistant, grabbed her phone violently. The MK joined in aggressively and pushed me and Inbal, the cousin of abductee Tal Shoham,” Yuval Baron, the son-in-law of hostage Keith Siegel, is quoted as saying by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The Times of Israel has not seen any footage of Vaturi’s direct participation in a physical altercation.

Following the confrontation, the protesters continued to follow Vaturi as he headed toward the lawmakers’ wing of the building, with one calling out that the hostages were underfed.

Turning around, Vaturi replies: “Did you eat this morning? So everything is fine.”

Last month, Vaturi charged that anti-government protesters, who have been regularly demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza, are a “branch” of Hamas. The lawmaker later attempted to backtrack.

Most Popular