Netanyahu has also been criticized for using the hostages as “props” in public speeches but not campaigning hard enough for their release.
“(Netanyahu) brags about taking care of the hostages, but he doesn’t send a negotiating team to Qatar to sign the deal,” said Udi Goren, whose cousin Tal Haimi’s body was held captive by Hamas.
“Why doesn’t he want more Argamani to come home?” he added.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the hostage families’ criticism of the prime minister’s appeal and the government’s policy on negotiations with Hamas.
The Pledgeetc and the Missing Families ForumThe representative of the relatives of the hostages in Gaza said that the delay in sending the negotiators to Qatar occurred after the families of the hostages received repeated assurances from them that a delegation would be sent this week.
“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to get our loved ones back. This effectively undermines the negotiations and signals a serious moral failure,” the group said in a statement Thursday morning.
According to Israeli officials, 115 hostages are currently being held in Gaza, including at least 41 people believed to be dead. The figures include four hostages held in Gaza since 2014, two of whom are believed to have died.
According to several American families who have been held hostage in Washington for Netanyahu’s speeches and meetings, they are concerned that he is in the United States rather than in Israel to bring their loved ones home. They told NBC News on Wednesday that they expect a joint meeting with the president at the White House on Thursday Joe Biden and Netanyahu as a chance for Biden to pressure the Israeli leader to agree to a cease-fire deal next week without any new obstacles.
The leader of the Israeli opposition called Netanyahu’s speech a “disgrace”. Yair Lapid also wrote in X that “he spoke for an hour without saying such a sentence: “There will be a bail deal””.
The families spoke after the Israeli army said on Thursday that soldiers had recovered the bodies of five hostages in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Among them was a kindergarten teacher Maya GorenWHO He died in the captivity of Hamas According to Israeli officials, he is 56 years old. The bodies of four soldiers – Sgt. Maj. Ravid Arye Katz, Master Sgt. Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas and Sgt. Officials also took Kirill Brodsky.
The rescue operation took place when the Israeli forces attacked Khan Younis This saw tens of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee the area.
Mosheh Wins, Courtney Kube and Andrea Mitchell contributed.