PM meets with families of Israelis kidnapped to Gaza, vows to prioritize their return

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Sunday evening for the first time with the families of missing and captive Israelis from Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, amid harsh criticism by relatives that the government has forsaken those being held in Gaza.

In a statement following the meeting, a forum of families with loved ones believed to be held hostage in Gaza said that Netanyahu had vowed to work for their return as soon as possible.

“Netanyahu told the families that one of the goals of the war is the return of the captive and missing,” the statement from the families read, after the meeting at an IDF Home Front Command base in Ramle.

On Saturday, National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi said that “Israel will not hold negotiations with an enemy that we have vowed to wipe from the face of the earth.”

In response, the families forum issued a statement slamming the government for “effectively saying that it is abandoning its citizens who have been kidnapped.”

Following the meeting, the families said that they accepted a “clarification” from Netanyahu that Hanegbi’s statement did not represent his opinion on the matter.

The families said they demanded all avenues be explored, including through contact with Hamas, leaders of Arab countries and other influential figures “in order to lead to their immediate release.”

Late Sunday evening, some of the family members present at the meeting claimed that other family members of missing Israelis arrived midway and started disagreeing with the position of the centralized group. “It seemed as if they had come to intentionally incite arguments among us,” one family member told Channel 12 news.

According to Ynet, one of the family members who arrived partway through the meeting said: “I love my daughter no less than anyone else here… but at the end of the day you have to look at Israel and its continued existence” — a statement that angered many of the other people present.

One family member present at the meeting told Channel 12 on Sunday night that “we felt like this was political opportunism… he didn’t come with us, he [must have been] invited to express this opinion.”

In the middle of the night between Sunday and Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement denying that there had been any coordination with or knowledge of the other families and their positions.

“During the meeting, a number of families arrived at the location, without any coordination, said that their loved ones were kidnapped and asked to join,” the statement read. “Their request was approved and they entered the meeting.”

The Prime Minister’s Office added that “nobody in Netanyahu’s office had any prior familiarity with them, and the idea that they were ‘planted’ is false, shocking, outrageous and unacceptable.”

Protests demanding action on the at least 199 citizens believed to be held captive in Gaza have also been held outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv over the past week. The IDF said on Saturday that it had recovered the remains of Israelis who have been missing since Hamas’s attack in “localized raids” into Gaza last week, but did not elaborate.

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu opened a newly expanded cabinet meeting with a moment of silence for the more than 1,300 people who have been killed since Hamas’s massive, deadly invasion just over a week ago.

“Hamas thought we would break — we will break Hamas,” Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.

הממשלה עמדה דקת דומייה לזכר הנרצחים והנופלים בטבח של מחבלי חמאס. נתניהו: "הלוחמים הנפלאים שלנו מבינים את גודל המשימה. הם נכונים לפעול בכל רגע, כדי למגר את מפלצות הדמים שקמו עלינו לכלותינו. חמאס חשב שאנחנו נתפרק – אנחנו נפרק את חמאס"@shemeshmicha
(צילום: רועי אברהם, לע"מ) pic.twitter.com/iDwIM0WPNk

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 15, 2023

“We are working around the clock, as a team, as a united front,” Netanyahu said, noting the presence of five new ministers in light of the recent addition of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party to the emergency government.

“The unity among us sends a clear message to our people, to the enemy and to the world,” Netanyahu added. “I have seen our amazing soldiers who are now on the front line. They know that the entire nation is behind them. They understand the scope of the mission. They are ready to take action at any time in order to defeat the bloodthirsty monsters who have risen up against us to destroy us.”

Gantz, a former defense minister and former IDF chief — announced last week that he would join an emergency government to guide Israel’s actions during the current war. He is also a member of the narrow war cabinet that will steer the conflict, alongside Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has repeatedly refused to bring his Yesh Atid party into the government unless Netanyahu fires far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. On Saturday, Likud announced that Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman had agreed to join the government, but Liberman later said he would not be joining unless he was also granted a spot on the narrow war council too.

National Unity MK Matan Kahana wrote on X Sunday that now that his party was a member of the government, “we have to prove worthy of it.”

Kahana wrote that in recent days he had been visiting the wounded, attending funerals and conducting consolation visits, while also meeting with IDF soldiers on the front lines.

“These people gave all they could give. Some will remain wounded in body and soul for the rest of their lives,” Kahana wrote. “Some gave their lives. Now it’s our turn — now it’s the turn of the leadership to prove that we are worthy of them.”

Some 1,800-2,000 Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack against southern Israel on October 7, bursting across the border and killing more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 150-200 people whose fates are unknown.

The vast majority of those killed as the Hamas gunmen seized Israeli border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what US President Joe Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

The Hamas-run health ministry said some 2,329 Palestinians have been killed as of Sunday and 9,042 have been wounded in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza.

The IDF says it has killed some 1,500 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli territory after they breached the border fence and rampaged in southern Israel.