Benjamin Netanyahu booed by hostage families during speech: ‘Now! Now!’

Families of hostages taken by Hamas heckled Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he addressed the country’s parliament.

In his speech, the Israeli premier vowed to bring the captives home but said that “more time” was needed. Israel would not succeed in freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza without military pressure, he reiterated.

“We wouldn’t have succeeded up until now to release more than 100 hostages without military pressure. And we won’t succeed at releasing all the hostages without military pressure,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“Military pressure, operational pressure and political pressure and that’s why there is one thing we won’t do – we will not stop fighting,” he said.

To this, the families chanted, “Now! Now!”

Israel says 129 hostages are still held in the Palestinian territory by Hamas following the October 7 attacks. Meanwhile, three Israeli hostages were killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces earlier this month.

Earlier, it was reported that Hamas and allied groups rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire.

‘Not even close to finish’

To members of his party, Benjamin Netanyahu also said that Israel will expand its Gaza ground offensive in the coming days despite international efforts to stop the fighting and accept ceasefire.

The Israeli leader said that the war “isn’t close to finished” as he spoke after returning from a visit to troops fighting inside Gaza.

“We are not stopping. We are continuing to fight and we are expanding the fight in the coming days,” he said, asserting, “The will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished.”

The war has already killed at least 20,674 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza as the World Health Organization said that the territory’s hospitals are barely functioning while people continue to starve.