Pressure builds on Netanyahu as Israel's anger rages over hostage deaths

Widow of hostage refuses to meet Israeli Prime Minister as anti-government protests set to resume

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday where he vowed to to continue the war. EPA

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Public anger and pressure continues to build against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, widely seen as the main obstacle to a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would bring home about 100 hostages still in the devastated Palestinian enclave after almost a year of war.

Rallies continued across Israel on Monday night and continued on Tuesday, including in Tel Aviv, where members of parliament were injured by police as they demanded Mr Netanyahu agree to a deal.

Fury against the already unpopular Prime Minister has been fuelled by the death of six more hostages, whose bodies were recovered from Gaza over the weekend. Three were slated to have been freed under a ceasefire deal proposed in July, according to Israeli media reports.

The widow of Alexander Lobanov, one of the six hostages, refused to meet Mr Netanyahu during a visit to the family home in Ashkelon on Tuesday, local media reported. Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza have continued public appeals and attacks against Mr Netanyahu for failing to bring the others home.

As protesters carried mock coffins outside his Jerusalem residence on Monday night, Mr Netanyahu vowed to to continue the war and spent much of a rare press conference hitting out at government ministers who have called on him to reverse last week's vote to keep troops in the Salah Al Din border strip.

An Israeli withdrawal from the strip is a main Hamas demand for a ceasefire – a demand repeatedly dismissed by Mr Netanyahu, who said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “can forget about it”.

While he apologised for “failing to bring the hostages home alive”, Mr Netanyahu claimed keeping troops in the border strip is the only way to bring the rest back.

His Monday speech and commitment to staying in the corridor “torpedoed” already fragile ceasefire talks, a source close to negotiations told CNN on Tuesday.

Nira Sarusi, mother of Almog Sarusi, one of the captives recovered from Gaza, said her son had been abandoned. "You were sacrificed at the altar for collapsing Hamas, Rafah, the Philadelphi Corridor [Salah Al Din]. You and so many beautiful and pure souls," she said at his funeral.

The Families Forum has repeatedly called on Mr Netanyahu to “take responsibility” for the hostages' deaths and months of failed efforts to wrangle a ceasefire deal.

Israel has said the six hostages were killed by their Hamas guards as the Israeli army closed in on the area in which they were held, while Hamas has claimed at least one hostage was killed in an Israeli strike.

The group has since threatened to execute hostages if the army approaches their position – and said Mr Netanyahu has “deliberately disrupted” a deal for his own interests.

A protester holds a photo of hostage Carmel Gat, killed in captivity in Gaza, during a rally calling for an immediate hostage deal in Tel Aviv. Getty Images

On Tuesday, Israel's state comptroller said not a single politician or member of Israel's security establishment has taken full responsibility for security failures that led to the Hamas attack on October 7, the worst in Israel's history.

“As of September 2024, there is no one who has taken personal responsibility with action alongside it – not at the political level, not at the security and military level, and not at the civilian level,” Israeli media quoted Matanyahu Englman as saying.

“There has not been a single person among the elected officials, bearers of public office, military leaders and the security establishment, who has met the proper standard and the expected time when it comes to upholding the value of bearing responsibility,” he told the Israel Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv.

Speaking at the same event, National Unity leader Benny Gantz, who quit Israel's war cabinet in June, dismissed protesters labelling the Prime Minister as "a murderer".

“Netanyahu is not a murderer and I condemn the incitement against him. [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is a murderer, Hamas and Hezbollah and the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guard are our enemies. But Netanyahu has lost his way and sees himself as the state. This is dangerous,” said Mr Gantz, who was seen at an anti-war protest in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

The Prime Minister is “the godfather of the concept of surviving in power at any cost", he added.

While domestic anger rages, international measures have also been taken against Israel over the war in Gaza – with frustration against Mr Netanyahu also growing in the US.

On Monday, the UK said it was suspending 30 out of 350 licences for arms exports to Israel, out of concern that the items could be used in breach of international law.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said independent legal advice he commissioned when entering government had found there was a “clear risk” that some exports could be used to commit “a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.

The equipment would have been used in components for military jets, helicopters and drones used in Gaza, Mr Lammy said.

Hours later, US President Joe Biden, speaking before a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, security advisers and officials involved in the truce talks, answered simply “No”, when asked if he thought Mr Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a hostage deal.