From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Murdered hostage’s daughter-in-law threatens: ‘If they don’t return, we’ll be waiting for Netanyahu with a noose’
A video circulates showing Ayala Metzger, whose elderly father-in-law Yoram Metzger was kidnapped on October 7 and murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza, telling a crowed that “if [the hostages] don’t return, we’ll be waiting [for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara] with a noose.”
“The Netanyahu couple, if you’re home, I won’t rest, Einav [Zangauker, mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker] will not rest, and Matan needs to come home, and [all of the hostages] need to come home,” Metzger screams into a microphone to cheers and horns blaring.
The video is broadcast by the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14.
The video was apparently filmed at a Thursday demonstration outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea, which called for new elections and a deal to release hostages held by the terror group Hamas in Gaza.
Some 3,000 protesters attended the rally, according to organizers, where police reportedly found a smoke grenade attached to a wire in the area outside Netanyahu’s home designated for the demonstration.
הסתה פרועה מול בית רוה"מ בקיסריה: "נתניהו ושרה, מגיע לכם חבל תלייה"#המהדורה_המרכזית@MaggieTabibi @IshayFridman pic.twitter.com/Z0PPjRZwDD
— עכשיו 14 (@Now14Israel) June 30, 2024
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Seven hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
