Netanyahu government failed to return hostages, must go: Yair Lapid

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday called for early elections, saying the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must go since it has failed to return the hostages held in Gaza since 7 October, Anadolu news agency reported.

“One after the other, the ministers of the government go on air this morning and attack the families of the abductees. You are out of your mind. Young women, elderly people, children were kidnapped on your watch,” Lapid said on X.

“For half a year you fail to bring them home, and then you blame their families? This government of destruction must go home. Election now.”

Earlier on Sunday, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu criticised the families of the detainees after a mass demonstration they held on Saturday in Tel Aviv urging the government to resign.

“The protest in Ayalon was violent … For Hamas, this is a gift. This has the opposite effect, and weakens the soldiers on the front,” Eliyahu told Channel 12.

READ: Thousands rally across Israel demanding Netanyahu’s resignation, hostage swap deal with Hamas