Watan-Families of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in the Knesset, demanding the return of their loved ones “now.” The protest took place during a special general session for the families of the prisoners held on Monday evening.
This move by the families of Israeli prisoners in Hamas comes at a time when reports are emerging of some of these prisoners falling as casualties in the sector due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
In his address, the Prime Minister of the occupation (Israel) spoke directly to the families, stating that it would not be possible to release their relatives without military pressure.
Netanyahu told members of his Likud party, “We are not stopping,” indicating that the occupying army would intensify “fighting in the coming days, and the battle will take a long time and has not approached the end.”
“What if it were your son?!”
In a gesture emphasizing his proximity to the soldiers and attempting to imply support for the continuation of the war, he said in his speech, “I have just returned from Gaza, where I met with a reserve unit in the field. Everyone asked me only one thing: not to stop and to continue until the end.”
Netanyahu also mentioned that “a few days ago, he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and requested his intervention to release all the kidnapped.”
However, the families of the prisoners interrupted him from their positions in the audience platform with chants of “Now.”
According to Hebrew media, the families who attended the special general session for the kidnapped individuals shouted from the visitors’ balcony: “There is no time now!” They also held signs that read, “If it were your father” and “If it were your son.”
📸عائلات أسرى الاحتلال تقاطع خطاب #نتنياهو في الكنيست، وتهتف “الآن، الآن، الآن”، في إشارة للمطالبة بعقد #صفقة_تبادل_الاسرى مع #المقاومة في #غزة . #حلل_يا_دويري #الحرس_الثوري_الايراني #لبنان #سوريا #الامارات_تقتل_السودانين #غزة #قاسم_سليماني #فلسطين_الان #المغرب #السودان_يستغيث… pic.twitter.com/oOdYoOtQyc
— وطن. يغرد خارج السرب (@watanserb_news) December 25, 2023
The Military Pressure
The newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” reported that Netanyahu indicated in a private discussion within the Knesset that the head of the Red Cross refused to deliver medications to the prisoners through Hamas, stating, “We will not be able to release them without military pressure.”
Netanyahu claimed in his speech that his government is making every effort to release the prisoners.
He added, “We would not have succeeded in releasing more than 100 of the abducted if it were not for military pressure. All the pressures we exerted would not have succeeded without military pressure, and we will not be able to release all the abductees without military pressure.”
The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, killed around 1,200 Israelis and captured at least 239 in its attack on settlements near Gaza on October 7th last year. Dozens of them were exchanged with the occupation during a temporary humanitarian ceasefire that lasted for 7 days and ended in early December of this year.