The main Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages decried Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call at the UN Friday to “finish the job” in the territory, saying it endangered the remaining captives.
“Every day of continued war puts the living hostages at greater risk and threatens the recovery of those who have been murdered,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“Time and again, (Netanyahu) has chosen to squander every opportunity to bring them home.”
In a defiant speech at the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza even as US President Donald Trump said he thought he had sealed a deal on a ceasefire after nearly two years of war.
During the address, Netanyahu also read out the names of some but not all of the captives held by militants in Gaza, drawing rebuke from the hostages forum.
“While President Trump consistently acknowledges all hostages, both the living and those who have been murdered, Netanyahu chose to read only the names of the living hostages,” the group said in a statement.
“The families of all 48 hostages are outraged by this erasure. There are 48 hostages in Gaza, not 20.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack that sparked the war, Palestinian militants still hold 47 in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Militants also hold the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war in Gaza.
“Words without action are meaningless,” the hostages forum said.
“It is time to honour the will of the people, heed President Trump’s call and secure an immediate agreement that will return all 48 hostages and end this war before it’s too late.”
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© Agence France-Presse
