Itzik Bonzel, a Likud candidate for the Knesset and a bereaved father, stated in a Monday morning Facebook post that he wished there were a way to turn back the clock and return 88-year-old former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz to Hamas. Bonzel subsequently apologized for the remark, explaining that his comments stemmed from the intense pain of losing his son, Amit, early in the war in Gaza.
Itzik Bonzel’s Remarks and Subsequent Apology on Facebook
The controversy began when Bonzel, placed 29th on the Likud list by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, published a Facebook post attacking Lifshitz. Bonzel wrote that he wished “there were a way to turn back the clock and return” Lifshitz to Hamas. His anger was triggered by Lifshitz’s televised interview on Channel 13, in which she criticized the Netanyahu government. Lifshitz stated during the broadcast that Netanyahu did not bring back a single hostage and claimed that Miriam Adelson bought them from Trump, adding that keeping the current government after the elections would spell disaster for the country.
In his initial response, Bonzel defended the soldiers who rescued Lifshitz from the Gaza tunnels, noting that some did not return from the operation. He expressed profound outrage at her comments, writing, “I have never written in such a manner before, but I wish there were a way to turn back the clock and return you to the hands of Hamas – because in the face of this display of ingratitude, it seems you simply did not deserve to have our precious, holy sons sacrifice their lives for you.”
Hours later, Bonzel issued an apology in a follow-up Facebook post. “As a bereaved father, who lost his son in the war to return hostages, it pained me to see the harsh things that humiliated our soldiers, but in a storm of emotions, I wrote a sentence about Yocheved Lifshitz in the context of Hamas, which I did not mean, and I apologize,” he wrote.
Yocheved Lifshitz Responds to the Incitement Allegations
Lifshitz, whose husband Oded was killed in captivity after they were both abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, asserted that Netanyahu sent his appointee to incite against her.
“Netanyahu sent his appointee to incite against me so that people wouldn’t talk about the intelligence warnings that reached him, and about the personal warning calls he received that could have prevented the failure,” Lifshitz stated, referring to brewing controversies over warnings from Egypt and the UAE. She maintained that Netanyahu bears direct responsibility for the October 7 failures, accused him of abandoning her husband and 45 other hostages to die in captivity, and announced an open invitation for the public to join a rally at Hostage Square to demand accountability.
Political Repercussions and Reactions from Opposition Leaders
Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, posted on X/Twitter calling Lifshitz a hero and demanding that Netanyahu look her in the eye to ask for forgiveness. Golan accused the prime minister of recruiting individuals to his party who wish Yocheved back to hell.
MK Efrat Rayten of the Democrats also took to X to denounce the statements, writing that wishing a former captive back to Hamas captivity crosses every moral red line. Rayten characterized the remarks as a fundamental failure of values, declaring that such a person is unfit to serve as a public representative.