Netanyahu government failed to return hostages, must go: Opposition leader

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Sunday called for early elections, saying the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must go since it has failed to return the hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7.

“One after the other, the ministers of the government go on air this morning and attack the families of the abductees. You are out of your mind. Young women, elderly people, children were kidnapped on your watch," Lapid said on X.

"For half a year you fail to bring them home, and then you blame their families? This government of destruction must go home. Election now."

Earlier on Sunday, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu criticized the families of the detainees after a mass demonstration they held on Saturday in Tel Aviv urging the government to resign.

“The protest in Ayalon was violent ... For Hamas, this is a gift. This has the opposite effect, and weakens the soldiers on the front,” Eliyahu told Channel 12.

Israel has waged a military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 taken as hostages.

More than 32,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, in addition to mass destruction, displacement, and conditions for famine.

In a seven-day truce in November, as many as 105 hostages were exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

International efforts to reach a cease-fire and release the remaining hostages continue, and Hamas says some of the captives have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.​​​​​​​

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi