Netanyahu defended his position, telling the families, “To overcome an ideology, you have to use a lot of force or eliminate it.”
JERUSALEM POST STAFF
AUGUST 24, 2024 00:46
Hostage survivors and relatives of those still held in Gaza met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in his office in Jerusalem on Friday.
Following the meeting, Channel 12 was able to get access to a recording of the meeting in which the pair can be heard telling the former hostages and relatives that there was not a deal on the table and that whoever told them that was “simply lying.”
During the meeting the attendees urged the Prime Minister to sign an agreement and get as many hostages released as possible.
“You can be remembered as someone who led the country to a good place or as someone who made a mess here,” one family member told him. “You are the Prime Minister, and you are responsible for the abductees, not Hamas and not anyone. You are supposed to reach a deal that will bring all the abductees.”
“What deal? What deal is there?” Netanyahu responded.
Hostage family members sit in the Knesset with photos of their relatives in empty chairs. (credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post)
“Whoever told you that there was a deal ready and that we didn’t take it for one reason, another reason, for personal reasons, is simply lying,” he said.
Defending his position
Netanyahu defended his position, telling the families, “To overcome an ideology, you have to use a lot of force or eliminate it.”
“I’m trying to reach a deal that will maximize the number of hostages; I won’t do it for 12 hostages because I’m simply leaving people who are sick, who are old, the devil knows what. Would you do such a thing? I do no such thing.”
He added, “Hamas refuses for two reasons. The first reason is their goal is simply to get a victory and just kick us out of there and another part of the axis (Philadelphi) and keep fighting because that’s what this crazy man is — an actual psychopath.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-816093.
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