Former hostages demand answers from Gantz, Eisenkot regarding hostage deal
Netanyahu is deliberately scuttling the deal and abandoning the hostages to their deaths, they wrote.
More than 80 family members of hostages from 30 different families, including six former hostages, sent a letter to Ministers-without-portfolio Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot asking them to give the public answers regarding the negotiations for a hostage deal.
"We hostage family members watch in horror at what is happening. Netanyahu is deliberately scuttling the deal and abandoning the hostages to their deaths. Entering Rafah now is a death sentence for the hostages. Netanyahu's announcement that he is not the one who is scuttling the deal is a misrepresentation and throwing dust in the eyes of the public - and you know it," they wrote.
Letter calls for clarifications following Netanyahu's Saturday statement
"You have become extras in Netanyahu's show of accusations and the torpedoing, which has for meaning the abandonment of the hostages to their deaths," the letter further stated.
"You justify your stay in the government by returning the hostages. It is time for you to turn over every stone to return them. It is time for you to remove the obstacles that Netanyahu put in the deal," they concluded.
The signees of the letter said they penned it in response to a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday in which he said Israel would enter Rafah at all costs. According to the signees, the comment came following previous Israeli media reports on Saturday, which suggested a deal would be concluded soon. The letter's authors also noted that the Prime Minister reportedly prevented the negotiation delegation from leaving for Cairo. According to them, this influenced Hamas's decisions.
On Saturday, it was Arab media reported that Hamas appeared to have eased its stance in the negotiations and would soon agree to the proposal offered by the Egyptian mediators.
On Monday, however, it was reported the terror group had announced to freeze the hostage deal negotiations in Cairo.
Yuval Barnea, Sam Halpern, and Reuters contributed to this article.
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