Widows of 2 hostages confirmed killed in Gaza pan government’s policy on captives
Chaim Peri’s wife says family very angry over ‘abandonment of hostages’; Yoram Metzger’s widow says she doesn’t know what she would say to Netanyahu, who has ‘no compassion’
The widows of hostages Chaim Peri and Yoram Metzger expressed criticism of the government’s attitude toward the captives, in interviews with Hebrew media a day after the military declared that their husbands had been killed while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Osnat Peri told Channel 12 Tuesday that she would be happy if her late husband’s body was returned from Gaza, where it is being held by Hamas terrorists, but emphasized she did not want anyone to die on such a recovery mission.
“In my eyes, life comes before everything, in my eyes, this is Judaism. It amazes me that religious people are leading a different view, and therefore my answer is clear — I would be happy if they brought back [the bodies] but I am not prepared for someone to die for that. Neither a civilian nor a soldier,” she said.
Peri said her family was conducting media interviews in the immediate wake of Monday’s announcement because they were extremely angry at the government for what she called the “abandonment of the hostages,” and expressed hope that her tragedy would further prove the need for an arrangement that returns the hostages still in Gaza.
“If this happens because of yesterday’s tragedy, it is half a consolation,” she said.
Peri stated that the family was not surprised by the news.
“For a certain time, we understood that it wasn’t going in a good direction, that the expectations for Chaim were less and less optimistic,” she said, adding that when the family was called to gather in one place together, they all understood what had happened.
“Everyone came to the apartment in Kiryat Gat. We understood where this was going for a while because there were no signs of life for a very long time from [Hamas],” Peri said. “We weren’t surprised,” she said, although the news still came as a “hard blow.”
She told the network that her husband had saved her on the morning of October 7 by standing at the entrance of their shelter when terrorists entered their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz for the third time during the massacre. Since the shelter was dark, the terrorists did not notice Osnat hiding in the corner and only took Chaim hostage.
“When we looked over the situation we saw that if the terrorists had entered 20 centimeters more inside they would have seen me. But they didn’t go in and that was because of Chaim,” she said.
Speaking to the Kan public broadcaster, Tamar Metzger, who was abducted along with her husband on October 7 from Nir Oz, said she was angry at the current policy being led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The premier has repeatedly said he would not end the war before Hamas is eliminated in exchange for the release of hostages.
Asked what she would say to Netanyahu, she replied, “I don’t know what to say to him.”
“I don’t know what to say to a person without any emotions, who has no compassion, who has no ability to make a decision,” she added.
She said no one from the government had contacted her personally since her husband’s death was announced. Only President Isaac Herzog and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar had spoken to her, she said.
Metzger said it was too difficult to describe the “helplessness” she felt when she last parted ways with her husband upon her release on November 28 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
“They threw me out of the room immediately. They didn’t give us any time to breathe,” she said. “And I heard him yell, go! Go!”
Peri and Metzger were seen alive in a propaganda video published by Hamas in December alongside hostage Amiram Cooper, whose death was also announced Monday. In March, the terror group claimed that the three were killed by Israeli strikes. The military said it is investigating the circumstances of their deaths.
Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped 251 people on October 7, including a number of bodies, during their murderous rampage in southern Israel, when they killed close to 1,200 people. The IDF has now confirmed the deaths of 41 of the remaining 120 hostages believed to still be held in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is also believed to be 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.
