The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded an “explanation” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday after he said in an interview with conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro that there were 46 remaining hostages in Gaza, rather than 48.
“What started in Gaza will end in Gaza, with the release of 40 of our hostages — 46, actually; 20 are alive,” said Netanyahu, who also enraged the families in August by committing to “the release of all 20 of our hostages” at a time when there were 50.
The Forum, which represents most of the families of hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, noted that their loved ones were kidnapped two years ago Tuesday, and four others had been kidnapped in 2014 and 2015, “all of them on your watch.”
“So we’ll bring you up to speed — there are 48 hostages in Gaza,” said the Forum. “For us, and for the people of Israel who for two years have taken to the streets week after week, every one of them is a whole world. Every one of them must come home, the living for rehabilitation and the fallen for burial in their land.”
Amid the negotiations that began in Egypt on Monday on US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire-hostage deal proposal, the Forum said Netanyahu has an opportunity to end the “nightmare” and return all the hostages — “48, not 40, and not 46.”
In an episode of The Ben Shapiro Show that was released on Monday, Netanyahu said he hopes the ongoing war will end “soon” with Trump’s help.
Speaking in his office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he and Trump had managed to “turn the tables” and put international pressure on Hamas to accept a deal to end the war, after much of the focus was on Israel.
The proposed deal, announced in a joint press conference of the two leaders in Washington last week, would require Hamas to release all the hostages within 72 hours, disarm and cede control of Gaza, which would be demilitarized and governed by a transitional international authority.
“I thought it was a very important thing to say, hey, release those hostages, end Hamas rule. Let’s get on with the task of pursuing an expanded peace, which I think would be possible once this thing is done,” Netanyahu told Shapiro.
He added that he thought it was possible to expand the Abraham normalization agreements that Trump brokered between Israel and four Arab nations in 2020.
“I think we can expand the Abraham Accords,” said Netanyahu. “I think we can have more peace agreements. I think we can have them not only in the Middle East, but with the Islamic world beyond the Middle East. And there are some important Islamic countries, countries with big Islamic majorities, who are in touch with this, but I think first you have to finish the job. You have to finish the Gaza war, which I hope to do very soon with President Trump’s help.”
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.