A group of frustrated relatives of Israeli hostages stormed a parliamentary committee meeting Monday to demand the lawmakers do more to bring their loved ones home.
Video posted online showed about 20 men and women chanting slogans and carrying signs as they pushed past a parliamentary usher and into a hearing room where the Knesset Finance Committee was holding a meeting in Jerusalem.
“Release them now, now, now!” the group said as the startled parliament members sat around a table.
One woman held up photos of three family members who were taken by Hamas terrorists when the Palestinian group attacked the Jewish nation Oct. 7.
“Just one I’d like to get back, just one out of the three!” she cried.
Other protesters were seen holding signs saying, “You will not sit here while they die here.”
Panel Chairman Moshe Gafni — the head of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition — eventually stood up.
“Redeeming captives is the most important precept in Judaism, especially in this case, where there is an urgency to preserve life,” he said.
But “quitting the coalition would not achieve anything,” he said.
Israeli officials say dozens of people still remain in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip more than three months after the terrorist attack.
As the fate of those left in the Gaza Strip remains uncertain, the families of the hostages have taken aim at Netanyahu and his far-right government, calling for a new election.
On Saturday, relatives camped overnight outside Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea north of Tel Aviv to demand the government take bolder steps to secure their release.
“We will not leave him until the hostages are back,” said Eli Stivi, whose son Idan is being held in Gaza.
The dad is embarking on a hunger strike until Netanyahu agrees to meet with him.
Others were seen blocking traffic in Tel Aviv as they demanded a new agreement with the terrorist group to secure the hostages’ release.
But over the weekend, Netanyahu rejected a deal he said would require Israel to completely withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip and leave Hamas in power ine exchange for an end to the current the war and bringing the remaining hostages home.
“Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain,” he said.
On Monday, the prime minister doubled down on his refusal to accept the agreement, saying, “There is no real proposal by Hamas.
“I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonizing you,” he told the hostages’ families.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, countered by saying Netanyahu’s refusal to end the military offensive in the territory “means there is no chance for the return of the [Israeli] captives.”
Meanwhile, US, Egyptian and Qatari officials are still continuing to try to work out a deal between Israel and Hamas.
The latest efforts focus on negotiating a “multiphase” agreement between the two parties that would include a longer truce, the release of all hostages and increased humanitarian aid in Gaza, according to the Financial Times.
The goal would be to use the temporary truce to negotiate a permanent cease-fire, which Hamas is insisting must be part of any deal.
The terrorist group had already agreed to a multimonth temporary truce, but Israeli officials demanded a shorter cease-fire, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Financial Times.
Netanyahu has previously said that “only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages.”
He also insisted Sunday that once Israel is victorious, he will demand “full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River” and would continue to resist the establishment of a separate Palestinian state.
“My insistence is what has prevented — over the years — the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel,” he said.
“As long as I’m prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.”
With Post wires
