Hostage families slam Netanyahu for allegedly stating Israeli hostages ‘are suffering but not dying’

Netanyahu: More pressure on Hamas the only way to free hostages

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The families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for allegedly stating that "the hostages are suffering but not dying,” during a closed Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to Ynet News.

Speaking with Cabinet members about the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire deal with Hamas, Netanyahu allegedly said: “We shouldn’t be stressed. Hamas is the one who should be stressed; the hostages are suffering but they aren’t dying.”

On Wednesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the prime ministers comment an “outrageous statement, false on the factual level and reckless on the practical level.”

“Unfortunately, the facts speak for themselves and hostages have already been murdered in captivity. We have no way of knowing whether at this moment, additional hostages are really not being murdered. The negotiations for the release of the hostages are in the final stages and in critical days before signing a deal,” the forum added.

“It would have been appropriate for the entire Israeli government, headed by the Prime Minister, to do everything in its power to bring about the signing of the deal as soon as possible instead of hampering it.”

Many hostage families also attacked Netanyahu over the comments in posts on social media.

Boaz Zalmanovitz, the son of the murdered hostage Aryeh Zalmanovitz, responded on 𝕏: “I checked with my father and he answered that he both suffered and died.”

Adi and Avi, the parents of murdered IDF field observer Noa Marciano, wrote on Facebook: “I heard the Prime Minister’s words, and maybe he doesn't know... My daughter Noa was kidnapped, suffered and died in Hamas captivity. As time passes, the hostages continue to suffer and their time is running out; we paid the heaviest price. Noa paid with her life, and now they all have to be returned.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset plenum hall in Jerusalem, July 17, 2024. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Demonstrators hold a sign that reads "Kidnapped alive - abandoned to their death. A deal now" (Photo: Women's Protest for the Hostages)

While Netanyahu so far hasn’t responded to the report and the attacks against him, he commented on the negotiations and slammed his critics during a debate in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.

“As our pressure on Hamas increases, so does the trolling campaign,” the prime minister was quoted as saying on Channel 12 News. “The less successful your campaign is in the squares and streets, the more you raise the tone.”

“We are making systematic progress towards achieving the goals of the war: The release of the hostages, the elimination of Hamas, and the promise that Gaza will not pose a threat to Israel. Hamas is under pressure because we are eliminating its commanders and terrorists, because we entered Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor and we are holding it by the throat,” Netanyahu said.

Turning to the opposition and referencing a U.S.-brokered gas deal with Lebanon, the prime minister said: “The more we persist in the pressure, the more Hamas will give up. This is the only way to free the hostages.”

“If it was up to the opposition you would have surrendered a long time ago and Mohammed Deif would have walked away victorious. You would give him a gas agreement in Gaza just like you did to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”