Knesset Guards Attack Hostages' Families Demanding Netanyahu Allow Oct. 7 Probe
The bereaved families came to the Knesset to watch elected officials, including Netanyahu, debate the creation of a commission to investigate how the militant group was able to carry out its deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people died, including members of the military, and around 250 were taken hostage.
Most of the families on Monday belonged to the October Council, a group that includes captives' loved ones, Oct. 7 survivors and hostages who have since been freed. The group joins many other Israelis in calling for their government to establish such a commission – which Netanyahu has blocked – and expressing frustration with the prime minister, who they claim has prioritizedhis political careerover the remaining hostages' safety.
'Mr. Prime Minister, you and your government have yet to take responsibility. So many civilians are asking for forgiveness, and so few politicians are asking for forgiveness,' recently freed hostage Yarden Bibas wrote in a letter read aloud on the Knesset's floor by lawmaker Chili Tropper. The letter said that 83% of Israeli citizens want a state commission, including the October Council's 1,500 families.
'I am constantly thinking and regretting that I did not protect my wife and children better. It eats me up inside. I only had a gun and I am a simple citizen in a quiet kibbutz,' Bibas, whose family died in captivity, continued. 'Do you think about this? Do you also find it difficult to spend days and nights without a heavy sense of responsibility for what happened?'
Security guards blocked the families from entering the Knesset chamber's public gallery, agitating the crowd holding photos of their loved ones and turning the interaction into a shouting match. Eventually, the guards attacked them.
Footage from journalists who were at the scene, like Haaretz, showed people screaming as guards shoved them to the ground and beat some with batons. Security reportedly dragged hostage Matan Angrest's father across the floor and threw his grandfather down the stairs. A man whose child was killed in the Nova music festival attack fainted.
'The violence directed at us is unacceptable. Today we also feel the government violence on our bodies, the same violence that tries to prevent us from answering for the failure that led to the deaths of our loved ones,' the October Council said, according to a Hebrew translation.
'The speaker of the Knesset should resign today. By his order, bereaved families are now being beaten by the Knesset Guard,' it continued. 'The entire State of Israel is ashamed.'
Neither the prime minister's office nor spokespeople for the Knesset immediately responded to HuffPost's request for comment.
Knesset Chairman Amir Ohana later allowed the families to enter the viewing gallery before ordering that they be kicked out for turning their backs to the chamber floor in protest. But demonstrators still witnessed Netanyahu spiral into anger over the demands for an inquiry — accusing the media and opposition leaders of spreading a 'false campaign' that 'the government is sabotaging the [ceasefire] deal.'
'We demand the establishment of an objective, balanced, independent, non-politically biased investigative committee — not a committee whose conclusions are known in advance, have already been written and not without variety,' the prime minister shouted. 'And not a narrow range of opinions of a quarter of a millimeter that are all concentrated at one end of the political network.'
Netanyahu's tirade was shouted down by opposition leaders, to whom the prime minister responded, 'You with your shouts, cannot hide the truth.'
Opposition leader Yair Lapid described Netanyahu's speech as 'a spectacle not easy to watch.'
'The State of Israel is strong? You are responsible for the greatest disaster of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,' Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member for the Democrats, an opposition party, yelled at Netanyahu before telling him to visit the kibbutz of Nir Oz, which was devastated in Hamas' attack.
Protesters gathered outside Ohana's home in Tel Aviv Monday night, in addition to the demonstrations Israelis have regularly held calling on the government to end the war in Gaza and bring home the remaining hostages.
'One thing is clear: nothing will deter us. We are wounded animals, and wounded animals are not to be messed with,' the October Council said. 'We will continue to fight, the truth about the deaths of our loved ones and what led to it will be revealed. The day is coming when we will call on the public to join us in this just struggle.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration cuts $300M in UCLA research funding over antisemitism claims
The Trump administration has suspended more than $300 million in federal research grants to UCLA, citing the university's alleged failure to address antisemitism and discriminatory practices on campus. The move, part of a broader crackdown on elite universities, marks the most severe funding cut in UCLA's history. According to government letters obtained by multiple news outlets, agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy are halting hundreds of active grants. Officials allege the university engaged in 'race discrimination' and 'illegal affirmative action,' and failed to prevent a hostile climate for Jewish and Israeli students, following campus protests over the Gaza war. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that UCLA would 'pay a heavy price' for its 'deliberate indifference' to civil rights complaints. A 10-page letter Tuesday from the Department of Justice to UC President Michael Drake said the DOJ had looked into complaints of discrimination since Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas attacked Israel, leading to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which sparked protests at college campuses across the U.S. The letter cited 11 complaints from Jewish or Israeli students regarding discrimination between April 25 and May 1, 2024, while pro-Palestianian protesters occupied an encampment on the UCLA campus. 'Several complainants reported that members of the encampment prevented them from accessing parts of the campus,' the letter said, and some reported encountering intimidation or violence. The Department of Justice set a Sept. 2 deadline for the university to begin negotiations or face legal action. 'Federal research grants are not handouts,' he wrote Thursday. 'Grants lead to medical breakthroughs, economic advancement, improved national security and global competitiveness — these are national priorities.' The freeze affects more than 300 grants, with nearly $180 million already distributed, and follows similar enforcement actions against Harvard, Columbia and Brown universities. UCLA recently agreed to a $6.5 million settlement with Jewish students and a professor over claims of discrimination during 2024 campus protests. Frenk, who is of Jewish heritage, emphasized the university's efforts to combat antisemitism, including the creation of a campus safety office and an initiative to fight antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. 'Antisemitism has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination,' he wrote, while insisting the funding cut 'does nothing to address any alleged discrimination.'
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump administration freezes $339M in UCLA grants and accuses the school of rights violations
The Trump administration paused the research funding as part of an investigation by the government's antisemitism task force, two administration officials said. The freeze included about $240 million in research grants from the Department of Health and Human Services and the NIH, $81 million from the NSF, and $18.2 million from the Energy Department, a White House spokesperson said. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The move makes UCLA the latest university to be targeted by Trump administration officials. It comes amid a broader pushback by the administration against what it sees as 'woke' ideologies. Advertisement The NSF said in a statement that it was 'suspending awards to UCLA because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals.' The NIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Brown, and others have had federal funding reduced or threatened based on broad accusations from the Trump administration that range from antisemitism to improper support for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In some cases, the government has used the threat of funding cuts to extract concessions and hundreds of millions of dollars from universities. Advertisement Last year, UCLA was the site of one of the nation's biggest protests against the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrations prompted claims from across the political spectrum that the university didn't do enough to protect Jewish students or pro-Palestinian demonstrators. On Tuesday, the university agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit from Jewish students and a professor who said that the university had allowed a hostile protest on campus. After the settlement was announced, the Department of Justice separately said that it had found the university violated civil rights laws by failing to respond to students' complaints of antisemitism. Although the Trump administration intensified its attacks on UCLA this week, the school had been a target of the government's scrutiny for more than a year. In May 2024, Frenk's predecessor, Gene D. Block, testified before a congressional committee examining campus antisemitism. And in February, a Trump administration task force on antisemitism identified UCLA as one of 10 schools it intended to visit as it investigated whether 'remedial action is warranted.' In recent weeks, UCLA would not say whether any of the task force's investigators had been to the campus. Frenk said in his statement Thursday that UCLA had taken 'concrete action' to address antisemitism and discrimination, including creating a new office of campus safety. 'This far-reaching penalty of defunding lifesaving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination,' he wrote. He called the cuts a 'loss for Americans across the nation' whose work and health rely on the university's research. Advertisement The funding cut is an early test for Frenk, who became chancellor in January, as well as James B. Milliken, who took over as the University of California system's leader Friday. State and education leaders have been deeply concerned about the possibility that the Trump administration would target the university system as a whole, but especially the campuses in Los Angeles and Berkeley. Both schools were on the antisemitism task force's list for potential visits. But the Department of Education has also said it was investigating accusations of antisemitism at several other UC campuses.
3 hours ago
Human Rights Watch says Israel committing war crimes in alleged killings of Gazans at aid sites
The international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday accused Israel of war crimes and violations of international law because of the killings of people near food aid distribution sites in Gaza -- as well as deprivation of food, aid and other basic services. There have been several mass casualty events near the four sites run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since it began operating in late May, HRW said. In a statement in response to the HRW report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it allows the GHF "to operate independently" in the distribution of aid and that troops operate "in proximity" to make sure food is delivered in an orderly fashion.' The HRW's report came as U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Gaza on Friday, inspecting food aid delivery. In previous incidents, the IDF has said that it only fires "warning shots" at crowds and when it feels like its personnel are in danger. At least 58 people were killed near Zikim aid distribution center on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, and another 14 were killed near an aid center in Muraj in southern Gaza, local hospital authorities confirmed to ABC News. In response to the Zikim shooting, the IDF said troops fired "warning shots in the area, not directed at the gathering, in response to the threat posed to them." The Israeli government has also previously claimed that Hamas shoots people waiting in food lines and films the events for propaganda videos. Hamas has denied these claims. "Israeli forces are not only deliberately starving Palestinian civilians, but they are now gunning them down almost every day as they desperately seek food for their families," Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW, said in a statement. "U.S.-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths." HRW called on nations to pressure Israel to stop using deadly force as a crowd control method, to lift restrictions on aid entering Gaza and to end the GHF system. Meanwhile, in its statement, the IDF accused Hamas of starving and endangering the population in order to maintain control over the strip and taking actions "to prevent the success of food distribution in Gaza." "The IDF stresses that, as part of its operational management of the main access routes to the distribution areas, IDF forces are conducting systematic review processes in order to improve the operational response in the area and minimize, as much as possible, any friction between the civilian population and IDF forces," the statement read, in part. "As part of these efforts, IDF forces have recently worked to reorganize the area by installing new fences, placing signs, opening additional routes, and more." "Additionally, following reports of civilian casualties near distribution areas, in-depth examinations were conducted by the Southern Command, and the incidents are under review by the authorized bodies within the IDF," the statement continued. Meanwhile, a hunger crisis is reportedly worsening across Gaza. At least 159 people have died from starvation and malnutrition, including at least 90 children, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, since the war began in the wake of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on southern Israel. Aid slowly resumed entry into Gaza after Israel instituted an 11-week total blockade on all humanitarian supplies entering the strip earlier this year. The blockade caused widespread malnutrition and conditions likely to lead to famine, according to the U.N. and aid groups. Israeli officials have long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which Hamas denies. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the idea that Israel is applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza is "a bold-faced lie," adding that "there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza." However, a new report on Tuesday from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative monitoring hunger, said that "the worst-case scenario of famine is playing out in the Gaza Strip," and that "access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels." Additionally, a USAID analysis appeared to undercut some of the assertions about the extent to which Hamas had allegedly stolen humanitarian aid. A presentation reviewed by ABC News, examining more than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or loss of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza, showed that the group failed to find any evidence that Hamas engaged in widespread diversion of aid to cause the amount of hunger seen in the strip. On Friday, Witkoff wrote in a post on X that he and Huckabee spent the previous day meeting with Israeli officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza "Today, we spent over five hours inside Gaza -- level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions, and meeting with [GHF] and other agencies," Witkoff wrote. "The purpose of the visit was to give [President Donald Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza." It came amid Trump's plan to expand aid deliveries to Gaza, although there are no signs the White House is moving away from the GHF. Hamas senior official Izzat al-Risheq criticized the visit in a statement. "Witkoff's visit to Gaza is nothing but a publicity stunt aimed at containing the growing outrage over the U.S.-Israeli partnership in starving our people in the Strip," he said. "Witkoff sees in Gaza only what the occupation wants him to see, viewing the ongoing tragedy through a misleading Israeli lens."
