Netanyahu: Few hostage families thought I’d be able to free loved ones before Nov. deal

A reporter at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English press conference shares the message of Almog Sarusi’s mother, who accused the premier of sacrificing her son on the “alter of the Philadelphi Corridor.”

Seroussi was one of the six hostages whose bodies were returned to Israel after they were murdered by Hamas last week. The hostage families have accused Netanyahu of dragging out negotiations with his new demand for Israel to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor.

Netanyahu is asked by the reporter whether the deaths of more hostages is a price he is willing to pay in order to maintain his stance regarding the corridor.

The premier responds by acknowledging the pain of Sarusi’s mother and says he doesn’t judge her amid the agony she’s undergoing.

He says he’s committed to getting all of the hostages out and that doing so requires maintaining the right amount of pressure on Hamas. This was proven in the first deal that he secured in November that released over 100 hostages.

“The responsibility of leaders is not merely to share the sentiment, the emotion, but also to exercise the correct judgment to make sure that these horrors do not happen again.

“I believe that our strategy is the best way to achieve both goals — both freeing the hostages and ensuring that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.”

He is asked why he waited seven months into the war before sending the IDF to Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, and says, “I was never going to leave Rafah alone; or the Philadelphi… We were going to be there, no matter the pressure.”

Another reporter uses his platform to pass along a question from former hostage Aviva Seigel, whose husband Keith is still in captivity. She asks whether her husband will be brought back alive or dead.

“I’ll do everything to make sure that Keith and all the other hostages come back,” Netanyahu responds, without specifying whether they will do so alive or dead.

If Israel were to leave the Gaza-Egypt border, he says, “We can get a few out — they’ll give us that. But they’ll leave a lot with them.” And Israel would then have lost the “pressure point” it holds over Hamas.

Netanyahu claims few of the hostage families believed he would be able to secure the release of their loved ones before he did so with the November deal.

“None of them believed that we’ll get the hostages in the first batch either — few of them, quite a few of them didn’t believe it,” he says.

“They came and said… ‘You have to make this concession or that concession.’ I didn’t make those concessions and we got them out,” Netanyahu says.

Asked about US President Biden’s claim on Sunday that he’s not doing enough to secure a hostage deal, Netanyahu says, “I would direct the pressure and the rage where it belongs: on those who took these hostages, those who keep them in dark dungeons and those who massacre them in cold blood — Hamas.”