Hostage relative: Israeli government won't prioritise captives over defeating Hamas

(20 Nov 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv - 21 November 2023
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of protesters outside venue where families of hostages met with war cabinet members, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Udi Goren, relative of hostage:
"Now, when we've met with the entire cabinet, what we've heard is that taking down Hamas and bringing the hostages are as important, are equally important. As far as I am concerned, and I represent myself and my family, this is incredibly disappointing because I feel that at this point, when we know that taking down Hamas, we keep hearing from them, is going to take months or years and it's going to take a long time. On the other hand, the other objective is time sensitive. People are dying. We know that for sure. And as the other goal is time sensitive and we're talking about people's lives, then we all feel, especially when we're talking about our families, that this should be the top priority. It doesn't mean that we should not care about taking down Hamas. Absolutely not. Nobody is claiming that. Nobody is saying that. But we definitely have a criticism on how this prioritisation goes."
3. Cutaway of Goren
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Udi Goren, relative of hostage:
"We didn't get any new information. And this is something that I didn't expect to get. It is absolutely clear that they have to keep things confidential. They kept saying it. They kept expressing the fact that they wish that they could tell us and I felt they were being honest about it. And it makes you know, it just takes common sense to understand that if they told us about the the the details of the deal that is now being done, then it might jeopardise it. So for me personally, I know other people were very disappointed, for me personally, this was not one of my expectations."
5. Various of protest
STORYLINE:
A relative of a hostage captured by Hamas said on Monday that Israel's top officials told him that they won't prioritise the release of captives over the defeat of Hamas.

Udi Goren, whose cousin Tal Chaimi is being held captive in Gaza, was one of several family members of hostages who met with the war cabinet, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"What we've heard is that taking down Hamas and bringing the hostages are equally important," Goren told reporters after coming out of the meeting at the Kirya, in Tel Aviv.

"This is incredibly disappointing because we know that taking down Hamas, we keep hearing from them, is going to take months or years and it's going to take a long time," Goren said.

Netanyahu had earlier promised to meet with the family members of all hostages.

Goren also said the war cabinet - a body set up immediately after the Hamas attack - did not share any details about any possible deal to release the hostages.

"We didn't get any new information," Goren said.

"It is absolutely clear that they have to keep things confidential... if they told us about the the details of the deal that is now being done, then it might jeopardise it", he added.

AP video by Ami Bentov

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