Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met on Tuesday with households of hostages captured on Oct. 7, as strain mounted over his authorities’s plans to convey them residence.
“We are committed, I am personally committed, to the release of all the hostages,” Mr. Netanyahu stated, in accordance with an announcement despatched by his workplace. “Rescuing them is a supreme task.”
The assembly got here days after the Israeli army admitted to mistakenly killing three hostages that it thought have been Hamas militants. The lads — Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka — have been shirtless, unarmed and bearing a makeshift white flag, the army stated, and taking pictures at them violated its guidelines of engagement.
Israel believes that greater than 125 hostages are nonetheless held in Gaza, and the deaths on Friday revived frustrations amongst lots of their households. On Monday, Avi Shamriz, the daddy of Alon Shamriz, one of many three males killed by chance, told NBC News that the prime minister’s authorities had “murdered my son twice.”
Mr. Netanyahu met on Tuesday with representatives of greater than a dozen of the hostages’ households. Many households who weren’t invited to the assembly protested outdoors the Israeli army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, opposing what they’ve considered because the politicization of the hostages’ trigger.
Critics of Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza cited the killings as proof that Mr. Netanyahu’s authorities has not been as dedicated to defending civilians at it has claimed. Greater than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed within the combating to date, in accordance with Gaza’s well being ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. The ministry has stated, nonetheless, that 70 p.c of the useless are ladies and youngsters.
On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu vowed to maintain combating in Gaza after he learn from a letter that he stated got here from households of Israeli troopers who had been killed.
“You have a mandate to fight; you do not have a mandate to stop in the middle,” Mr. Netanyahu learn in Hebrew.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
