Netanyahu putting politics before Gaza deal, dead hostage's daughter says

The daughter of one of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were brought back from Gaza by Israel’s military on Tuesday has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of putting “political priorities” ahead of a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Inbal Albini Peri told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that her 80-year-old father Chaim and his friends would have been among the first people freed under any agreement with Hamas and that they “should have come back alive”.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted he is making every effort to bring back all of the remaining hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s 7 October attack.

But Ms Albini Peri said: “I don’t believe a word he is saying.”

“I want him to say to my family and all the other families: ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong."

In her interview, Ms Peri did not explicitly explain what she meant by "political priorities".

Mr Netanyahu's far-right allies have vowed to pull out of his coalition, undermining his chances of staying in power, if he agrees to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in return for hostages.

On Tuesday evening, a senior US administration official criticised the prime minister for making what they called “maximalist statements” that were “not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line”.

It followed reported comments by Mr Netanyahu suggesting he had told the US secretary of state that Israeli forces must stay in strategic parts of Gaza, which Hamas rejects.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 40,170 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 105 hostages are still being held, 34 of whom are presumed dead.

Chaim Peri lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was one of the 26 communities and towns close to the Gaza perimeter fence targeted by Hamas on 7 October.

The film lecturer and lifelong peace activist was abducted after he voluntarily left the saferoom of his home to protect his wife, Osnat, who was hiding inside. His 34-year-old son, Danny Darlington, was also killed in the attack.

In December, Hamas’s military wing released a video showing Mr Peri along with two other elderly hostages from Nir Oz - Yoram Metzger and Amiram Cooper. Mr Peri could be seen addressing the camera and calling for their release.

“That is more or less the last that we heard from him. Now we know that he probably died around February,” Inbal Peri told the BBC.

In June, the Israeli military informed the family that Mr Peri, Mr Metzger, Mr Cooper and British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell had been killed during an operation in the Khan Younis area, in southern Gaza, citing intelligence it had gathered.

On Tuesday morning, Ms Peri was told that Israeli troops had recovered the bodies of her father and five other hostages - Mr Metzger, Mr Popplewell, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder and Yagev Buchshtab - from underground tunnels in Khan Younis.

“For my family it’s maybe a small closure. It’s not the right word to say ‘happy’, but for us it is the end of the way and we are burying our father in the place that he loved so much,” she said.

“But there are other hostages that are still alive, and the chances that will come back alive are getting smaller.”

Ms Peri said she believed that her father and his friends from Nir Oz also should have come home alive as part of a new hostage release deal, which the US, Qatar and Egypt were trying to broker before her father was thought to have died and are continuing to do now.

“It only depended on our government and the mental standing of our prime minister, who had different priorities. He had political priorities. And that makes us very, very angry and frustrated.

“I’m not saying that we could really stop the war, but we had to do the negotiations instead of keeping on fighting. We have seen for over 10 months that it’s not working.”

When asked if she had put this directly to Mr Netanyahu or other members of his government, she replied: “Many people from the government did talk to us and try to help. But when the head is wrong, it doesn’t matter.”

She added: “We want our government and our prime minister to go ahead and have a deal, to have something to talk about, instead of risking over and over again our soldiers to bring back bodies. We don’t want any more soldiers to be killed.”

“Bring back all the hostages because they are still alive. And their time is really running out.”

On Tuesday night, Mr Netanyahu’s office said he had told hostages’ families in Jerusalem that “the first thing is to eliminate Hama and achieve victory”.

“The second thing is that we are, at the same time, making an effort to return the hostages, on terms that will allow for the maximum number of hostages being released in the first stage of the deal. I say this clearly: This is an objective that I have set,” he added.

“However, the other thing is to preserve our strategic security assets in the face of major domestic and foreign pressure, and we are doing so."