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Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, told the relative of a hostage held in the Gaza Strip that the government was unaware of the Supernova music festival on October 7 and was therefore not responsible for the massacre that took place there, according to leaked recordings published Tuesday. The comments were made at a meeting with hostage families a few weeks ago, during which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told participants that the government faced a “very difficult decision” regarding signing a hostage deal, in terms of the number of hostages who would be released in the first stage of an agreement, according to audio aired by Channel 12. “I am telling you.
We’ll do a survey now, you won’t agree. I didn’t agree!” Netanyahu said of the proposed terms of such a deal. Many Israelis are incensed that the prime minister has largely avoided taking responsibility for the years-long strategic missteps that led to the October 7 massacre.
Critics, hostage families among them, have also accused him of sabotaging negotiations for a hostage deal, claiming the premier is set on avoiding a deal that endangers his governing coalition even at the cost of the hostages’ lives. One of the participants pushed back against his remarks on the sidelines of the meeting, to which Sara Netanyahu responded by voicing concern over the ongoing “war of annihilation.” The premier’s wife claimed to participants that the October 7 massacre was part of a larger plot to eliminate Israel — an intention Hamas hid too well and ruined by acting prematurely.
“It is no secret that Iran has a plan to conquer us. You know, maybe it’s not connected. I am a psychologist and also work.
I have been a child psychologist for many years,” she said, according to the recordings. The participant pressed the issue, voicing his concern that a hostage deal was close to being reached, but may not happen. “I came out feeling there is a leader who thinks about every arena with a peripheral view,” Netanyahu’s wife said, defending her husband’s tough stance on a potential deal.
“We are facing annihilation, and I ask you to believe the things I am saying and not to underestimate them. They want to annihilate us and they have the ability. We saw this on October 7, when for long hours they murdered, butchered, raped, and kidnapped.
All of this shouldn’t have happened. Do you agree that this shouldn’t have happened?” she said. “Of course, it shouldn’t have happened,” the meeting participant said.
“And there shouldn’t have been a party in Re’im,” Netanyahu added, referring to the music festival, where over 360 people were murdered and 40 were kidnapped. “I don’t understand who approved the party. If someone says, ‘This is the government’s responsibility,’ well, no, the government didn’t know,” she said.
Responding to the leaked recordings, Sara Netanyahu’s office said that the leaking of a few sentences from a three-hour meeting was “manipulative.” The statement claimed that in every meeting, “Netanyahu fully sympathized with the call for the return of our hostages, and strengthened and supported the families.” The statement also noted that the premier’s wife continues to work as a psychologist for the Jerusalem municipality, though it did not say how that was relevant to the meeting with the families.
Hostage relatives told Channel 12 that Netanyahu’s wife was essentially an accomplice to the prime minister’s abandonment of the hostages, calling her “Mrs. Abandonment,” a play on “Mr. Abandonment,” a title used by some hostage families to describe the premier.
“She who lives on Gaza Street in Jerusalem will never understand those who are imprisoned in substandard conditions in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza,” said Hadas Calderon, whose husband Ofer is held hostage, referring to the prime minister’s current residence. “As someone who works as a child psychologist, I would expect her to raise her voice strongly and poignantly regarding Ariel and Kfir , the children still held in Gaza, and not continue to abandon them there,” said Ofri Bibas-Levy, the sister of Yarden Bibas , who is held captive in Gaza, along with wife and two children. “I would send you to open a dictionary to understand what responsibility is, but I will limit myself to one clear statement: until all the hostages return, you carry full responsibility for the biggest failure in Israel’s history — we have nothing to talk about with you and your husband,” said Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law, Yoram Metzger, was murdered in captivity.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014..
