Families in Israel whose loved ones have either been killed by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas militia or remain in captivity in Gaza criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his meetings with freed hostages but not with families of other victims.
A leading opposition politician joined the criticism.
“When you are prime minister, you are the prime minister of successes and defeats,” opposition leader Yair Lapid told Israeli channel Kan on Sunday. “To only be prime minister when everything goes well and to disappear when everything doesn’t go the way you want, that’s pathetic.”
Netanyahu met with four hostages released from the Gaza Strip in the hospital on Saturday – during the Sabbath or Jewish day of rest – and had his picture taken.
However, according to media reports, families of Israelis killed in the October 7 Hamas massacre and relatives of slain hostages were angry that neither Netanyahu nor other government representatives had contacted them.
“A Prime Minister with moral values would have called for comfort and strength. And to apologize for what happened under his watch,” the father of a soldier killed on October 7 wrote on X.
Asked for his opinion of Netanyahu, the father said: “I despise him, a poor person.”
