Four relatives of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza have said they’ve lost patience with Hamas and their government’s leaders and vowed to take “extreme actions” after both sides have failed to reach a deal 104 days into the war.
Daniel Elgarat, the brother of hostage Itzik Elgarat, joined members of three other families in Tel Aviv on Thursday to slam Israel and Hamas, with the furious brother vowing to use his own body to block humanitarian aid from Gaza until his relative is secured, the Times of Israel reports.
“Time is up… your 100 days of grace have ended,” Elgarat said during the news conference. “We will take very extreme actions.”
Elgarat’s remarks were echoed by Ella Ben Ami, whose father Ohad, 57, was kidnaped in Kibbutz Be’eri during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Ben Ami, whose mother was released from captivity in November, called on Israel to convene an international conference with Qatari, Egyptian, US and European Union representatives to hash out a hostage release deal.
If we have to turn the country upside down, we will… If we have to recruit citizens to block aid [from entering Gaza], we will,” Ben Ami warned.
Elgarat and Ben Ami were backed by Eli Albag, whose daughter Liri, 18, also remains in Hamas captivity.
“We’re going to start doing things that we didn’t want to do… and we will not let you work,” he warned Israeli officials.
Albag also criticized the latest Israeli-Hamas deal that saw medication for sick hostages delivered on Wednesday despite the lack of assurance that the medicine would reach the Israelis in Gaza.
Qatari officials said Thursday that the medicine has likely gotten to the hostages, but there remains no solid confirmation amid a week-long blackout in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that it could not confirm the delivery, either, since it was excluded from the deal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused the humanitarian agency of not cooperating with Israel.
Shir Siegal – whose American father, Keith, 64, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza – also slammed Netanyahu’s administration for their failure to secure a hostage deal while prioritizing airstrikes and ground assaults in Gaza.
Siegal said that time was running out for her father and the other hostages and questioned if Hamas could be fully destroyed, as Netanyahu had promised.
“We don’t have to come up with solutions, you do,” she told her government. The country is falling apart…We’re done playing nice.
“We’re done sitting and nodding when you say you’re doing everything possible… Stop lying to us,” she added.
The comments from the frustrated families came after Netanyahu held a news conference where he reiterated Israel’s goal to win the war by eradicating Hamas.
During the event, Netanyahu repeated his claim that the only way to secure the safety of the hostages would be through military force rather than diplomacy.
“We will continue to fight at full strength until we achieve all our goals: the return of all our hostages — and I say again, only military pressure will lead to their release; the elimination of Hamas; and certainty that Gaza will never again represent a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
