Netanyahu has abandoned Israeli hostages for personal gain, says former Shin Bet head

A former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of abandoning the hostages in Gaza and clinging to power for personal gain.

“The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government’s messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain,” said Ami Ayalon in an op-ed in the Guardian today.

“Our government is undermining the democratic functions of the state to shore up and protect its own power. It is forcing us into a perpetual war with no achievable military objectives, which can only result in more loss of life and hatred.”

Ayalon said that 70 per cent of the Israeli public agrees that there must be “a comprehensive end to the war in return for bringing our hostages home, and an election as soon as possible so that this government can be replaced.”

The former security chief pointed out that thousands of military and intelligence personnel have signed petitions and letters demanding an end to the Israeli war in Gaza and the return of Israeli captives. According to the latest Israeli figures, nearly 150,000 Israelis have signed such petitions.

“We need our friends from outside Israel to express their support for the Israeli people and not an extremist government committed to unravelling the fabric of the state,” said Ayalon. He warned that Israel under Netanyahu’s rule is facing an “existential” threat. “If we cannot build enough momentum to create a course correction, the very existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is under threat.”

Israel currently believes that 24 of the 59 remaining hostages in Gaza are still alive. At the same time, more than 9,500 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails, with numerous reports of torture, starvation and medical neglect leading to the deaths of detainees.

An initial ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Israel, brokered by Egypt and Qatar with US backing, began on 19 January, but was violated by Israel.

At least 52,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s genocidal onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

READ: France calls on Israel to ‘stop the massacre in Gaza’