Knesset Guards Attack Hostages' Families Demanding Netanyahu Allow Oct. 7 Probe
HuffPost
The Israeli prime minister threw a tantrum over demands to establish an investigative commission on Hamas' attack.
Families whose loved ones were either killed or taken hostage during Hamas’ 2023 attack arrived at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu establish a state investigation into the country’s security failures — only for guards to beat them back with batons.
The bereaved families came to the Knesset to watch elected officials, including Netanyahu, debate the creation of a commission to investigate how the militant group was able to carry out its deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people died, including members of the military, and around 250 were taken hostage.
Most of the families on Monday belonged to the October Council, a group that includes captives’ loved ones, Oct. 7 survivors and hostages who have since been freed. The group joins many other Israelis in calling for their government to establish such a commission – which Netanyahu has blocked – and expressing frustration with the prime minister, who they claim has prioritized his political career over the remaining hostages’ safety.
“Mr. Prime Minister, you and your government have yet to take responsibility. So many civilians are asking for forgiveness, and so few politicians are asking for forgiveness,” recently freed hostage Yarden Bibas wrote in a letter read aloud on the Knesset’s floor by lawmaker Chili Tropper. The letter said that 83% of Israeli citizens want a state commission, including the October Council’s 1,500 families.
“I am constantly thinking and regretting that I did not protect my wife and children better. It eats me up inside. I only had a gun and I am a simple citizen in a quiet kibbutz,” Bibas, whose family died in captivity, continued. “Do you think about this? Do you also find it difficult to spend days and nights without a heavy sense of responsibility for what happened?”
