Family members of Israeli captives who were abducted alive during Hamas-led October 7 attacks, and killed in captivity demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party stop using them as part of their election campaign, Israeli media reported.
“If you have even a shred of humanity left, stop using our loved ones for election propaganda,” they demanded in an open letter to Netanyahu, as reported by The Times of Israel.
The families condemn his repeated claims that “Israel brought back all the hostages,” arguing that the government is “attempting to portray the return of their loved ones’ bodies as a political achievement.”
“You brought them all back? You did not bring our loved ones back. Their bodies returned in coffins,” the families wrote.
“Every time you repeat that sentence, you erase the terrible difference between those who returned alive to their families and those who never had that chance,” they add. “You are trying to turn the deaths of our loved ones into a political success story. But they should never have been abducted in the first place.”
The families accuse Netanyahu of failing to take responsibility for the October 7 attacks and its aftermath, saying that “for three years, we have watched you try to cover up the failure, evade responsibility, and rewrite history — history written in the blood of our loved ones.”
“If you are incapable of taking responsibility for the deaths of our loved ones, at least do not try to make political capital over their graves,” the letter states. “Do not use their deaths to ask the public for another term in office.”
Source: Israeli media (edited by Al-Manar)