A former Hamas hostage who was released after weeks in captivity during a temporary pause in fighting last year accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “forgetting” those in Gaza — as he shifts his campaign to the destruction of the militant group.
Aviva Siegel, in an interview with NBC News’s Molly Hunter on Thursday, argued Netanyahu was “thinking about himself more than thinking about us,” said Siegel, 62.
Siegel wants the Israeli leader to “stop the war” and pivot his focus on bringing other hostages home, including her Israeli American husband, Keith Siegel.
“I think that Netanyahu has forgotten about Keith and forgotten to be human and bring the human people back,” she said Thursday.
Siegel was one of around 240 people taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 after the militant group hit Israel in a surprise surprise attack that left around 1,200 Israelis dead.
Her comments come as Netanyahu unveiled a new plan for post-war rule of Gaza, where Israel will have indefinite security control. The plan contradicts the push to create an independent Palestinian state, a policy that the U.S. has supported.
His refusal to endorse a two-state solution has angered the Biden administration, which has pushed repeatedly for that plan along with a governing authority such as a revitalized Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank.
The prime minister rejected Hamas’s most recent proposal to free hostages kept in Gaza in exchange for a pause in fighting. Netanyahu called it “delusional” and assured that Israel would continue to wage its operation.
Siegel, during the interview, also added her concerns for the remaining 130 hostages held by Hamas — many of whom she said could be pregnant by the time they are rescued.
She recounted the way her husband had been treated by his captors.
“And he was so humiliated that when he came out he said he didn’t know what to do with himself because he felt like nobody, like nothing,” she said.
Since launching its counteroffensive in the region, more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a plan for post-war Gaza that drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.
The new plan came after airstrikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, and as an Israeli delegation arrived in Paris hoping to “unblock” truce discussions.
Netanyahu’s plan envisages civil affairs in a post-war Gaza being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas.
It also lays out that, even after the war, the Israeli army would have “indefinite freedom” to operate throughout Gaza to prevent any resurgence of terror activity, according to the proposals.
The plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority and drew criticism from the United States.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-war Gaza.
“The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote… through a revitalized Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“We don’t believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza… we don’t want to see any forcible displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza and, of course, we don’t want to see Gaza dominated or ruled or governed over by Hamas.”
Asked about the plan during a visit to Argentina, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would “reserve judgement” until seeing all the details, but said Washington was against any “reoccupation” of Gaza after the war.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan dismissed Netanyahu’s plan as unworkable.
“When it comes to the day after in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is presenting ideas which he knows fully well will never succeed,” Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.
Paris delegation
As aid groups warned of an increasingly hopeless humanitarian situation in the Hamas-run territory, an Israeli delegation led by David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency, arrived in Paris for a fresh push for a deal to return the remaining hostages.
The war started after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
LINK: https://uk.yahoo.com/news/former-hamas-hostage-netanyahu-thinking-223158588.html
