Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced harsh criticism from freed hostages and their relatives still held by Hamas during a war cabinet meeting, according to leaked audio of the heated event.
Footage from Tuesday’s meeting revealed that the freed hostages had felt abandoned by their government during their weeks of captivity in Gaza, with some shouting “Shame!” in Netanyahu while a woman accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes near where she and others were detained.
“The feeling we had there was that nobody did anything for us,” the former hostage, who was not identified, told Netanyahu in audio obtained by Israeli outlet ynet.
“The fact is that I was in a hideout that was shelled, and we had to be smuggled out and we were injured,” he added. “That’s in addition to the helicopter that shot us on the way to Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to former hostages and their relatives still being held in Gaza on Tuesday. GPO
The woman went on to blast Israel’s intelligence network, claiming that the government had “absolutely no information” about the location of the hostages since their detention center had been shelled during an IDF bombardment in northern Gaza.
The former hostage, whose husband is still in custody, also accused Netanyahu and the government of abandoning male prisoners in Gaza, saying they suffered as much as the women, most of whom had been released.
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The woman added that before they were separated, her husband would “beat himself every day,” causing him to bleed, because the situation in Gaza was “too hard for him.”
Relatives have called on their governments to put the well-being of hostages out of the war campaign. AFP via Getty Images
He and other families eventually accused Netanyahu of putting politics over the well-being of the estimated 137 people detained in Gaza after a cease-fire deal between the Jewish state and Hamas failed last week.
“You put politics above the return of the kidnapped,” the woman told the prime minister, claiming that winning the war was more important to her than the freedom of her people.
“And you want to topple the Hamas government, to show that you have bigger balls? No life here is more important than another,” he added.
One of the former hostages agreed with the call for a ceasefire because he stated that the place where he was held was subjected to Israeli airstrikes. AFP via Getty Images
Other former hostages voiced the hardships they endured under Hamas and fear of the ongoing airstrikes in Gaza, which have destroyed and damaged about 60% of Palestinian buildings and infrastructure.
“We are in the tunnel, afraid that it is not Hamas, but Israel, that will kill us, and then they will say Hamas killed you,” a freed resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz told the war cabinet.
The former hostages and their relatives still in captivity all added that time is running out for the hostages trapped in Gaza as war threatens to consume the entire region.
There are about 137 people still held hostage in Gaza, the majority of whom are men. Getty Images
Following jeers from the group, Netanyahu tried to reassure them that his government was doing everything to find and free the hostages in Gaza, but claimed that force was the only way to do it.
“Until we started the ground invasion, there was nothing. Nothing, nothing, zero,” Netanyahu said of the talks.
The prime minister reiterated that it was Hamas that broke the temporary ceasefire when it allegedly refused to release the remaining female captives, according to the agreement, which the US and Qatar are helping to manage.
Civilians who attended the meeting told ynet they were unhappy with the session, saying their concerns were not being heard and that “Netanyahu’s answers were brief, and he seemed detached from the conversation.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
