Israel: widow of captive killed in Gaza refuses to see Netanyahu

The widow of one of the six captives whose bodies were retrieved from Gaza last week refused to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he arrived at the family home for a condolence visit on Tuesday, Yedioth Ahronoth has reported.

Netanyahu visited the home of hostage Alex Lobanov in Ashkelon, but his widow Michal refused to meet him or speak to him on the phone. The newspaper said that Netanyahu had called Lobanov’s parents on the day that his and the other bodies had been found, and expressed “deep regret for the State of Israel’s failure to return him”.

The family of a female captive who was killed in Gaza and whose body was also recovered a few days ago have said that their daughter was a victim of Netanyahu’s failed policy. The family of Carmel Gat rejected Netanyahu’s attempt to exploit the killing of their daughter in support of his political position to keep Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

“We have just said goodbye to our dear Carmel, who was a victim of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s failed policy, and we heard that he presented a media presentation in which he vowed to take revenge on Hamas for the killing of the six kidnapped people,” the family were reported as saying by Channel 13. They stressed their rejection of “allowing Netanyahu to use Carmel’s killing in a cynical way, in order to continue the war and cause the killing of more kidnapped people.”

Netanyahu’s failed strategy, they added, has brought Israel more than 20 kidnapped people in coffins in recent months. “The only response to the killing of Carmel under Netanyahu is not revenge for blood, but a life deal that will return the kidnapped people to the homeland.”

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