Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should free all 109 hostages in Gaza in exchange for the children of five senior Israeli leaders in the security sector, Ditza Or, mother of hostage Avinatan Or, said Tuesday to Channel 12's Avri Gilad and Yair Cherki.
"I suggest you return the 109 hostages and, in return, receive only five hostages," she said. Or offered to exchange the five children of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar, Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, and Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon for all the hostages.
She went on to list the reasons for her choices. "The first is the son of Herzi Halevi - the chief of staff who does not know how to win. The second is the son of Gallant - the defense minister who announced that we cannot win.
"The third is the son of the military advocate general; the fourth is the son of the head of the Shin Bet who knew at 4 a.m. that an attack was starting and still allowed the Nova festival to continue as usual, even though it was possible to save all the hundreds of people who were murdered and kidnapped there. The fifth is the son of Nitzan Alon."
This statement follows Or's remarks in May, where she said how disappointed she was with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct with regard to the return of the hostages.
Or herself said that she voted for the Likud Party for decades and is among the founders of the Hope Forum, the families of the hostages who expressed support for Netanyahu.
Or said that she supported Netanyahu for many months during the war until she realized, according to her, that "nothing is happening." She added, "after six months, we realized that our government has completely failed."
Israeli journalists regret allowing Or's remarks on their platform
Keshet, the network on which the program is hosted, mentioned shared the "strong reservations" of the presenters and the panel members regarding "the things that Ditza Or, the mother of hostage Avinatan Or, chose to say on the live broadcast tonight."
Following the broadcast, Cherki explained that they were caught by surprise, and that Or's comments were not something they would usually allow on their platform.
"We did not know that she would say those things," he said. We were surprised on the live broadcast. Since she is the mother of a hostage, we let her finish a sentence before we stopped her expressed our disapproval of her remarks. Even though we cannot judge Ditza's pain, in retrospect, this conversation should have been stopped sooner. We pray for the return of all the hostages soon."
"As soon as she finished this interview, Cherki and I expressed our disagreements with what was said; we suggested that she retract it," Gilad wrote. "We regret that such things were said on our platform."