The father of one of the three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli forces has an unambiguous message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I’m going to say this [to] the government. You murdered my son twice,” Avi Shamriz told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Monday. “You let Hamas take my son on Oct. 7, and you killed my son on Dec. 14.”
Israeli military forces accidentally shot and killed Shamriz’s 26-year-old son, Alon, during intense fighting with Hamas militants on Friday, nearly 70 days after he was kidnapped. The troops also mistakenly killed two other hostages, identified by the military as Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka.
Avi Shamriz, who spoke to NBC News from the Shefayim kibbutz, expressed contempt for Netanyahu’s government, which has come under fierce scrutiny for appearing to be caught off guard by the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7. The attack killed more than 1,200 people.
“They cannot serve us,” Shamriz said of Netanyahu’s government. “They don’t deserve us, as a country, as a community. They are not our leaders. They are thinking only of themselves, on their chairs, on their salaries.”
Israel’s prime minister expressed his condolences in a post on the social media platform X on Friday, writing in part that “this is a combat zone where there have been many incidents in recent days. Immediate lessons from the event are now being passed on to all the fighting forces in the field.”
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