From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Smotrich and Ben Gvir welcome hostages’ release; latter urges resuming war to ‘destroy’ Hamas
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit party chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, both critics of the ceasefire deal, welcome the return of hostages Ofer Calderon, Yarden Bibas and Keith Siegel earlier today.
“Yarden, Keith and Ofer, welcome home! The entire people of Israel have been waiting for you and is so happy for your return,” tweets Smotrich, citing the biblical verse “Your children shall return to their own borders.”
Ben Gvir, a former national security minister who resigned from the government in protest of the deal, likewise welcomes back the hostages, stating that “we are happy and excited” about their return, “but at the same time, when we hear about the suffering our daughters and female hostages went through in captivity, we must not forget for a moment who the cruel enemy we are dealing with is.”
“Day by day, the message is clear and unambiguous to everyone: We must return to war and destroy our enemies,” Ben Gvir tweets.
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