By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – A group of relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem, demanding that legislators and the government do more to free their loved ones who were kidnapped on October 7.
In the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, ushers stood by during the commotion in the finance committee. One lawmaker covered her face with her hands.
The panel chair, Moshe Gafni, the head of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, called a halt to the economic briefing underway and sought to calm a protester.
“Redeeming captives is the most important precept in Judaism, especially in this case, where there is an urgency to preserving life,” he said, but added: “Quitting the coalition would not achieve anything.”
Soon after the incident, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pushed back on Monday following reports that a new release of Gaza hostages was underway.
He told relatives that Israel was taking an unspecified initiative in the absence of an offer by Hamas, condemned as a Palestinian Islamist terrorist organization by Israel.
“There is no real proposal by Hamas. It’s not true,” he stressed in a statement.
INCORRECT STATEMENTS
“I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonizing for you,” Netanyahu added. “Conversely, there is an initiative on our part, on which I shall not elaborate.”
Netanyahu’s government says an Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 cross-border Hamas killings of about 1,200 people and kidnappings of nearly 250 others is aimed at crushing Hamas and pressuring the kidnappers to release hostages on “acceptable terms.”
But many of the relatives and their supporters worry the hostages may be killed. Last week Hamas released a video purportedly showing the human remains of Yossi Sharabi, 53, and 38-year-old Itai Svirsky.
A third hostage, Noa Argamani, 26, said in the video that they died due to attacks by their “own” Israeli forces in Gaza.
And on Sunday, Israel’s military announced the death of 19-year-old Sergeant Shay Levinson, who was among the hostages. His date of death was given as October 7 but there were no further details. Israeli media said his body is still in Gaza.
They were among about 240 people being kidnapped more than 100 days ago by Hamas fighters.
Around half of the hostages were released during a short-lived November truce, but Israel says 132 remain in Gaza and that at least 25 have died in captivity.
In recent days, thousands gathered in Tel Aviv to remember Kfir Bibas, who marked “the saddest birthday in the world” on Thursday as the youngest hostage being held by Hamas in Gaza turned one year old.
TAKEN AWAY
The baby boy was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, when he was nine months old, alongside his parents, Yarden and Shiri, and his four-year-old brother Ariel.
It is not clear whether Kfir and his family are still alive. Hamas claimed that Kfir, his brother, and his mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Over the more than three months of the Gaza war, Kfir Bibas’s face has become known around the world as about a quarter of his life has been held captive by Hamas.
Nine-year-old Emily Hand, released on November 26, wrote, “I hope you get out of there as soon as possible. I understand the feeling because I was there, too. Sending you hugs and love.”
Yet without a breakthrough in talks, domestic and international pressure grows on Israel’s government to make concessions.
On Monday, the British prime minister’s official spokesperson said Britain was “disappointed” to hear of Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Britain vowed to continue its support for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Yet Netanyahu says a Palestinian state would threaten Israel’s security following the October 7 attack, the worst single atrocity in modern-day Israel’s over 75-year history.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Over two months after the parliamentary elections, France has a new government.
Israel’s military said a strike on a suburb of Lebanon’s capital killed Ibrahim Aqil, a prominent Hezbollah leader.
A summit was underway in New York this weekend that critics say will give the United Nations even more powers to create a new world order through a Pact for the Future.
Well-informed investigators say over 70,000 Russian soldiers have been confirmed killed in Ukraine since the Kremlin launched its invasion more than two and a half years ago. The news came amid reports of more fighting and attempts by the Ukrainian president to meet his U.S. counterpart and the presidential candidates.
Indian Christian leaders are skeptical about the federal government’s “road map” for peace in India’s conflict-torn Manipur state, where scores of Christians were killed and hundreds of churches and other properties were destroyed.
A massive barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon just after the terrorist group’s leader declared that two days of intense hybrid bombings, including the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah forces, amounted to a declaration of war.
Facing relentless violence against their communities by Islamic jihadist terror groups, 16.2 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have now been forced to flee their homes and live in poverty-stricken Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, the Christian Post (CP) reports.