"Netanyahu wants the hostages dead," journalist Gil Tamri claimed Sunday during a live panel on News 13. His words caused an uproar, with critics saying that he was inciting against the prime minister.
During the panel, Tamri said: "Netanyahu really has no incentives, no real incentive, to release the hostages. He wants them all dead, for his own reasons, to be martyrs. In this context, you have to remember what he is going against - he is going against an agreement that he agreed to. The head of his institution. A person he sent and gave him the permission to agree to these things."
He further clarified: "Netanyahu does not want to bring back the hostages alive, we need to understand that, we need to accept it." Later, he retracted his words and apologized, but with a caveat: "It is not certain that this is what Netanyahu wants most."
Likud officials critical of comment
In response, the Likud stated: "While Prime Minister Netanyahu has already released 110 of our hostages and is working for the release of all of them even at this moment, Gil Tamri, on News 13, dares to say that the Prime Minister wants the hostages to die. Hamas does not need media if it has News 13."
The CEO of Betselmo sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Second Authority recommending fines be imposed. "I would appreciate his immediate suspension and a high financial fine for these nonsense words that hurt the people during this most difficult time," he said.