Ex-Israeli captive slams Netanyahu regime as 'heartless'

Israeli far-right's euphoria over the rescue of four hostages and massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza stands in stark contrast with the anger of Tami Metzger, whose captive husband in besieged Gaza was announced dead days ago.

"If the [Netanyahu] government had stopped the war", her husband Yoram would still be alive, 79-year-old Metzger, who was also held captive by Hamas, told the AFP news agency.

"I'm angry... they are heartless."

The Israeli military announced on June 3 that four Israeli captives held in the Palestinian enclave had died, including Yoram Metzger, 80.

Days later, on Saturday, the army said it had freed four other captives, still alive, during a daytime bloodbath in central Gaza's Nuseirat camp where Israeli army — disguised as aid workers — killed 274 Palestinians, wounded some 700 and lost a soldier as well.

Though Metzger shared the country's joy at their rescue, she was equally expressive about her resentment towards hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "ran quickly to congratulate them."

"But when we were released... none of the ministers came", and nobody spoke to her, she said, referring to her own release from Gaza during a truce in late November.

On Saturday evening, Netanyahu visited the former captives in a hospital near Tel Aviv and made statements to hail their return and congratulate Israeli occupation forces.

'Tomorrow, tomorrow'

That same evening, Metzger's daughter-in-law Ayala, a leading figure in the anti-government movement, protested in Tel Aviv like every other week to call for a deal to free the remaining captives and "take down the government".

Metzger recalled with a smile her husband's attempts to lighten the mood with jokes.

However, as to her other feelings during that time, Metzger stayed reserved.

She recounted frustration, though, at the uncertainty around her release as others were freed.

"Every morning, they were telling us: 'Tomorrow it will be you, tomorrow, tomorrow,'" she said.

"The days passed, and this tomorrow never came."

Then suddenly, it did.

No time to say goodbye

Metzger did not have time to properly say goodbye to Yoram on November 28, when she was freed during the only truce the Israeli carnage has seen so far.

"I didn't get to touch him, to hold his hand, to hug him," she said.

She recalls that moment when she was leaving, Yoram "shouted 'Go! Go home! The kids are waiting for you'. I had no choice but to leave... I never saw him again."

On June 3, when the army told her of her husband's death and that of three other captives, she was not surprised.

In December, Hamas had broadcast a video showing her husband and two other captives alive, asking for their release.

"When I saw the video... I gradually understood that it was over", Metzger said, referring to the state of physical exhaustion she saw the three men in.

"This is how it is", she concluded with resignation.

Genocidal war

Israel has waged a brutal invasion on Gaza since Hamas' October 7 blitz on Israeli military sites and settlements that were once Arab villages and hamlets.

Hamas says its raid that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas resistance fighters rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence.

At some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response. The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people, Israeli officials and local media say.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently some 117 remain in Gaza, including 37 who the Israeli army says are dead, some of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

Israel has since then killed more than 37,000 Palestinians — majority of them babies, women and children — and wounded more than 84,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

In the occupied West Bank, more than 530 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded since October 7 by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, along with daily arrest by the Israeli occupation army.

Around 90% of Gaza's 2.4 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine. Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.