‘Agony. Pain. There are no words’: Israeli leaders grieve over hostage bodies’ return from Gaza

Israeli leaders responded with grief and outrage to the vile spectacle of Hamas’ “release ceremony” for the four hostages bodies on Thursday.

In the name of the nation, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog asked for forgiveness for failing the hostages. “Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts – the hearts of an entire nation – lie in tatters,” he wrote on 𝕏.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not fulfilling our duty. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that cursed day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely. May their memory be a blessing,” the president added.

In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was united on this day "in unbearable grief."

"Every home in Israel bows its head today. We bow our heads for the heavy loss of our four hostages. We all ache with pain that is mixed with rage. We are all enraged at the monsters of Hamas," said Netanyahu.

"The four coffins of our loved ones oblige us more than ever to promise, to swear, that what happened on October 7 will never happen again. The voice of the blood of our loved ones cries out to us from the ground. It obliges us to come to terms with the vile murderers - and we will come to terms with them."

He then quoted the start of Psalm 94 (NIV), "The Lord is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth."

"And with this spirit: We will return all our hostages, destroy the murderers, eliminate Hamas, and together - with God's help - we will secure our future," Netanyahu concluded.

Two United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parliamentarians who led committee meetings in the Knesset as Hamas started releasing the hostage bodies decided to postpone the meetings. “We are all facing a difficult day to digest as the people of Israel, as Jews and as human beings,” said MK Yaakov Asher.

Defense Minister Israel Katz declared, "The heart of the entire nation mourns today."

"Hamas kidnapped, Hamas murdered, Hamas will be destroyed. We will take revenge on our enemies and secure our future," Katz wrote.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had opposed the hostage deal but welcomed the release of the hostages over the past weeks, wrote on Thursday, “We wake up to a difficult morning for all of us. A morning that highlights the cruelty of our enemies and the justice of our determined war against them until they are destroyed from the face of the earth.”

“The entire people of Israel embrace the families and the heroic community of Nir Oz and share their deep sorrow. Let not our spirit fail. God and we will avenge their blood and restore the stature of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” he wrote on 𝕏.

“The heart cannot contain the pain,” wrote Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, adding a picture of IDF soldiers saluting the coffins upon receiving them from the Red Cross.

הלב לא יכול להכיל את הכאב pic.twitter.com/VhxXwfPir1

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) February 20, 2025

When it was confirmed that their bodies would be released the evening before, Lapid had written, “The heart is broken and hurts. Ariel and Kfir and their mother Shiri. And with them Oded Lifshitz. We hoped so much. Until we run out of words.”

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz called for a moment of unity, in a message published Wednesday evening. “Tomorrow we will all hold our breath – together. Let's grieve – together. We'll stop the fights – nothing will happen, they'll wait. And we will embrace the precious families as a strong and united people. They deserve it, we deserve it,“ he wrote.

In the face of the cruel spectacle of Hamas' "release ceremony," Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli bemoaned the West's "refusal to acknowledge the existence of pure evil. We have raised generations to believe that monsters exist only in fairy tales, that there is no true right or wrong, and that all cultures are equal."

“And then comes this accursed day, a day of horror and shame, when an elderly man, a mother, and her two children: Oded Lipschitz, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas — who were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists, paraded like trophies before a cheering, flag-waving crowd in Gaza. Pure evil."

“A society that tolerates Hamas sympathizers within it dooms its own elderly, its own mothers and children, to the same fate. Evil thrives in the shadow of cowardice. History will not forgive those who turned away,” Chikli wrote.

Meanwhile, representatives of the political extremes published controversial statements.

Yair Golan, chairman of the far-left Democrats, blamed the Israeli government for the death of the Bibas family in Hamas captivity: “If the Israeli government had acted in time, they might still be with us, alongside Yarden, who fought in captivity for them for a year and four months,” Golan wrote.

“It is impossible not to reflect with pain on the fate of Oded Lifshitz, who, while his wife Yokheved returned home, he was left behind and never got to see her again,” the former IDF general added.

On the other side of the political spectrum, far-right firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir called for violent revenge. On Wednesday evening, he wrote: “Destroy, shatter, eradicate, erase, crush, smash, burn, be cruel, punish, devastate, crush. Destroy!”

The next morning, amid Hamas’ grim release spectacle, Ben Gvir added, “Remember these moments. The sadness over the shedding of innocent blood. The joy of the beasts of prey. The thirst for blood. The clear knowledge that these Nazis must not continue to live."

"Our historical duty to our children is not to give up. The Nazis deserve no humanitarian aid. No fuel. No electricity. No trailers. No bulldozers. No ceasefire, no withdrawal. Only the gates of hell," Ben Gvir wrote.