""Families of kidnapped people say they were given a 'sign of life' to advance themselves in line"'

February 27, 2025   

Shimon Or, the uncle of the kidnapped Avinatan Or who is being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, told Chan Bayar on the program "Hatzi Hayom" on Channel 2 that families of the kidnapped say they received a "sign of life" from the kidnapped to advance themselves in the queue. "Because people see that some are going to be returned and some are not, they make a pilgrimage to Gal Hirsch and the media and they say that they received a "sign of life" to advance themselves in the queue." Shimon added: "One of the kidnapped leaders told Ditza Or, 'Save your child, find something to advance him.' It's disgusting." According to him, "We hope for a moment that we will be able to hug Avinatan - but this path that the Israeli government is taking is a path that distances him from us and all the kidnapped people who remained there. We see it as an immoral path." Or even expressed concern that the deal will collapse after phase one. "I'm afraid we won't reach phase two and we won't bring everyone back. Netanyahu knows that this way there's a chance he won't bring everyone home. "I said in meetings with Gal Hirsch that we see him and the prime minister as accomplices in the murder of the kidnapped. He knows that this way Hamas won't return a significant portion of the kidnapped because Hamas knows that once it brings everyone back, it won't have any existence. The only one who was moral was Trump.".