Netanyahu speech cheered in Congress, decried by hostage families

Netanyahu has also been criticized for allegedly using hostages as “props” during public appearances but not advocating hard enough for their release.

“While (Netanyahu) boasts about caring about the hostages, he’s not sending the negotiation team to Qatar to seal the deal,” Udi Goren, whose cousin Tal Haimi’s body remains in Hamas’ captivity, said in a statement.

“Why doesn’t he want more Argamanis to be back home?” he added.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the hostage families’ criticism of the prime minister’s address and the government policy toward negotiations with Hamas.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the relatives of those held captive in Gaza, said the delay in sending negotiators to Qatar unfolded after hostage families had received repeated assurances from them that the delegation would be sent this week.

“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure,” the group said in a statement Thursday morning.

There are now 115 hostages who remain held in Gaza, including at least 41 who are believed to be dead, according to Israeli officials. Those numbers include four hostages who have been held in Gaza since 2014, with two of them among those believed to be dead.

According to several of the American hostage families in Washington for the Netanyahu speech and meetings, they are upset that he is in the United States instead of in Israel trying to get their loved ones home. They also told NBC News on Wednesday that they are looking toward Thursday’s joint meeting at the White House with President Joe Biden and Netanyahu as a chance for Biden to pressure the Israeli leader to agree to a cease-fire deal as soon as next week with no new obstacles.

Calling Netanyahu’s speech a “disgrace,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also wrote on X that there had been “an hour of talking without saying a single sentence: ‘There will be a hostage deal.’”

The families spoke out after the Israeli military said Thursday that troops had retrieved the bodies of five hostages in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

Among them was kindergarten teacher Maya Goren, who died in Hamas’ captivity at age 56, according to Israeli officials. The bodies of four soldiers — Sgt. Maj. Ravid Aryeh Katz, Master Sgt. Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas and Sgt. Kiril Brodski — were also retrieved, the officials said.

The rescue operation took place as Israeli forces carried out an offensive in Khan Younis that saw tens of thousands of Palestinians forced to evacuate the area.