In an interview on Channel 12, former hostage Tami Metzger told Ofira Asayag and Haim Levinson, "When I got out of there [captivity], I said that the first thing I could do is shoot him in the forehead," Metzger said, hinting to Prime Minister Netanyahu. "I'm not ashamed to say it," she added.
After Asayag pressed her and asked, "Who would you shoot in the forehead?" Metzger responded with a suggestive look, "Who?" Levinson distanced himself from Metzger's statement, and said, "We do not agree with such a statement."
תמי מצגר ''כשיצאתי משם הדבר הראשון שאני יכולה לעשות זה לירות לו במצח''….יש לי תחושה שלוינסון ואופירה ידעו שהיא תגיד את הדברים, לכאורה כמובן..אין לה חסינות מאמירות מסיתות אבל מצד שני תסמונת שטוקהולם וכו׳. pic.twitter.com/hVF1hccMkt
— kitzz (@kitzz_rotter) July 7, 2024
This isn't the first time that Metzger has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an interview with Galei Zahal, she said, "The Prime Minister does not hear and does not see us. If he had a heart and a soul, maybe he would hear us. Bring back my husband and everyone."
In an interview to AFP following the rescue operation of Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir (21), Andrey Kozlov (27) and Shlomi Ziv (40), Metzger said, "If the government had stopped the war", her husband Yoram would still be alive.
Tami Metzger, 78, was taken hostage to Gaza with her husband Yoram Metzger, 80. Their daughter-in-law has been a leading figure in the anti-government movement, which continues to call for an immediate deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza. Yoram Metzger was killed in captivity, the IDF announced June 3.
Netanyahu didn't visit Metzger when she was released
Although Metzger also celebrated the rescue of the four hostages, she also expressed resentment towards the prime minister who “ran quickly to congratulate them [the rescued hostages],” however “when we were released…none of the ministers came,” and nobody spoke with her, she told AFP. Metzger was released in late November during a truce after fifty days of captivity.
On the day Metzger was taken hostage, "A Gazan opened (the bathroom) and pulled me. He asked for money but I had none... he grabbed me by the arms and took me outside," she recalled.
Two men took her on a motorbike before she was thrown into the back of a pickup truck. With blood on her face, she was pushed into a tunnel and forced to walk for several kilometers, she told AFP. She lived underground for the entirety of her captivity. with about 10 other hostages including her husband.
After she was released Hamas released a video of her husband along with two other hostages in December.
"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. When she was released, Hamas would not permit her to embrace her husband.