Mom, sister of slain captives slam PM over renewed fighting: No more hostages ‘should pay’ with their lives

Merav Svirsky, sister of slain hostage Itay Svirsky, tells some 1,000 anti-government protesters at the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters that it’s “insane and insufferable, and painful to the spirit and soul and body, that I paid the dearest price because of this government of destruction and its head,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He’ll do anything to preserve his rule,” she says. “And if that’s not enough, today we also know that ‘diplomatic source'” — reportedly Netanyahu’s pseudonym in press statements from his office — “is sometimes Qatari public relations posing as a diplomatic source,” adds Svirsky, alluding to recent revelations from the criminal investigation of alleged criminal ties between Hamas-backer Qatar and top aides to Netanyahu.

“Not another hostage should pay with their life for the criminal conduct of the government and its head,” she says. “Enough of all this unnecessary death. Instead of destructive revenge, we must go back to sanctifying life.”

Maayan Sherman, whose soldier son Ron Sherman was killed in an Israeli airstrike while in Hamas captivity, says that “along with Ron, 40 hostages have been murdered or killed because of this abandonment, while the government of Israel is busy with the insanity of the judicial overhaul.”

“Despite all the pain, I refuse to give up hope,” she says. “We’re here to remind everyone what responsibility is, what guilt is, what compassion is and what moral duty is.”

The Begin Road protest is bolstered by participants from an earlier anti-government demonstration at Habima Square.

As they marched up Kaplan Street toward Begin, the demonstrators passed dozens of left-wing activists standing in silence on the side of the road, clutching pictures of Palestinian children slain in Gaza.

One of the marchers yells at the activists, “Put up a picture of Bibas,” referring to young brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were killed in Hamas captivity along with their mother Shiri.