Netanyahu panned for allegedly telling cabinet ‘hostages are suffering but not dying’
Hostages Families Forum demands explanation, says comments ‘dangerously irresponsible’; Kan news reports PM actually said: ‘They’re not dead but their conditions are dire’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came under fire on Wednesday for comments he allegedly made at a cabinet meeting seemingly downplaying the threat hostages face in Gaza.
“We shouldn’t be anxious,” Netanyahu told the security cabinet on Tuesday night, according to the Ynet news site, referring to drawn-out negotiations for a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza. “Hamas is the one that should be anxious. The hostages are suffering but they are not dying.”
The Prime Minister’s Office did not issue a confirmation or denial of the claim.
Kan news on Wednesday evening quoted Netanyahu differently, reporting that he had said: “We won’t lose our hostages. They’re alive, they’re not dead but their conditions are dire, and so we must do everything to get them out as soon as possible.”
One official who spoke to The Times of Israel anonymously also did not comment on Netanyahu’s statement directly, but said Netanyahu “actually stressed in the cabinet meeting that we need to do everything in order to bring all the hostages home as soon as possible, and this can only be done by increasing the pressure.”
Israel believes that 120 hostages are being held in Gaza — 116 of them abducted on October 7 during the Hamas invasion — of whom dozens were confirmed by the IDF to be dead. There are also four hostages from a decade ago. Israeli negotiators are slated to meet with mediating countries this week in an attempt to move toward a hostage release-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Netanyahu’s ostensible assessment contradicts those of senior ministers in his government.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said in recent closed meetings that if a deal isn’t reached in the next two weeks, the abductees’ fate will be “sealed,” according to the Ynet news site.
Multiple hostages are believed to have died in captivity.
Ynet added that Gallant believes conditions have ripened for a deal with Hamas, but accuses Netanyahu of hindering progress in order to retain the support of far-right elements of the coalition.
The Hostages Families Forum called on Netanyahu to “immediately explain” his statement.
“The prime minister’s remarks are not only deeply hurtful to the hostages’ families but also factually inaccurate and dangerously irresponsible,” the group said. “The grim reality is undeniable: hostages have already been murdered in captivity.”
The grim reality is undeniable: hostages have already been murdered in captivity.
Insisting that hostages “may be losing their lives at this very moment,” the forum argued that negotiations “have reached a critical juncture” and that the current proposal “represents the only viable path to secure the release of all hostages.”
“It is imperative that the entire Israeli government, led by the prime minister, do everything in its power to expedite the signing of this deal, rather than create obstacles,” the group said.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. But it remains unclear how many hostages are still alive, with a Hamas official telling CNN last month that “no one has any idea about this.”
The full text of the Israeli hostage release-ceasefire proposal seems to acknowledge this, stating that if “the number of living Israeli hostages to be released” at a certain stage does not reach the number agreed, “the difference will be completed through the release of a corresponding number of human remains.”
The Israeli-drafted outline for a hostage deal and truce in Gaza, made public by US President Biden at the end of May, proposed a phased deal that would start with a “full and complete” six-week ceasefire during which a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, and the wounded, would be freed in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza.
Over that period, Hamas, Israel and mediators would also negotiate the terms of the second phase, which could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers. In return, Israel would free additional Palestinian security prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including bodies of dead captives, and the start of a years-long Gaza reconstruction project.
The sides have been reported to differ on core aspects of the transition from the halt in fighting in the first stage to a potential permanent ceasefire. Israel is demanding “an exit point” between the two stages, in line with Netanyahu’s insistence that the war will not end until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, by contrast, wants the initial ceasefire maintained for as long as is needed until negotiations are finalized on a permanent ceasefire and an end to the war, which Jerusalem says could enable Hamas to drag out the talks indefinitely.
During a heated debate in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, opposition figures pressed Netanyahu on hostage talks.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid demanded that Netanyahu either announce his acceptance of a hostage deal during his July 24 speech to the US Congress or cancel his upcoming trip to Washington.
“Mr. Prime Minister, are you going to announce next week on the rostrum in Congress that you accept the hostage deal?” Lapid asked. “If that’s what you’ll say, go in peace with our blessings. It is the right and moral thing to do. If that’s not your plan, don’t go to Washington.”
Lapid made his comments during a so-called 40 signatures debate — one the opposition can call once a month with the signatures of 40 MKs and which the prime minister is legally obliged to attend.
Netanyahu defended his leadership of the war, saying that “Hamas is indeed under pressure because we are eliminating its commanders, thousands of its terrorists, because we have entered Rafah and [the] Philadelphi [Corridor] and we are holding it by the throat.”
“We are going to eliminate this neo-Nazi government in Gaza, eliminate the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and we are progressing there step by step,” Netanyahu continued.
“We were told that Hamas would not agree to release hostages without us first agreeing to end the war. Suddenly it agrees. The more we persist in the pressure — the more and more it will give up. And this is the only way to free” the hostages, he argued.
After being heckled by bereaved parents on Tuesday during a state ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 2014 Gaza war, Netanyahu made a similar pledge: “We will increase the pressure on Hamas, and we will bring them all back, the hostages from October 7, and Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.”
The bodies of Shaul and Goldin were captured in the 2014 war, while Mengistu and al-Sayed, civilians who suffer from mental illness, entered of their own accord at around the same time and are believed to be alive.
At the end of the ceremony, Ayelet Goldin, Hadar’s sister, confronted Netanyahu as he departed the hall, and demanded his attention.
“Look us all in the eye, prime minister,” she shouted from her position in the audience. “Stand up and look me in the eye. My Hadar is the symbol of abandonment, the symbol of complete failure… you abandoned the fallen and the wounded.”
“We are one step away from total failure,” Goldin charged, mocking Netanyahu’s repeated assurances that Israel is “a step away from total victory” against Hamas.
