Netanyahu: There is no possibility right now to bring all hostages home

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday told the families of prisoners of war who were released from Gaza that “there is no possibility right now to bring everyone home,” Reuters reports.

The meeting came as fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip following a seven-day pause that saw the return of more than 100 prisoners of war from the enclave. The fate of 138 others is still open.

Several of the relatives who attended the meeting left bitterly critical of the government.

Dani Miran, whose son Omri was taken on 7 October, said he felt his intelligence had been insulted by the meeting and had walked out in the middle of it.

“I won’t go into the details of what was discussed at the meeting but this entire performance was ugly, insulting, messy,” he told Israel’s Channel 13, saying the government had made a “farce” out of the issue.

“They say ‘we’ve done this, we’ve done that.’ [Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya] Sinwar is the one who returned our people, not them. It angers me that they say that they dictated things. They hadn’t dictated a single move.”

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The meeting had been intended as a forum for released prisoners of war to tell ministers of their experience in captivity.

“It was a very turbulent meeting, many people yelling,” said Jennifer Master, whose partner Andrey is a prisoner of war.

Israel says a number of women and children remain in Hamas hands, while families with adult male relatives who are being held have been calling for them not to be forgotten.

“We are all trying to make sure our loved ones get home. There are those who want the women who are left or the children who are left, and those who say we want the men,” Master told Israel’s Channel 12.