The Knesset Finance Committee met Monday morning to continue discussing coalition finances and other budgets dealing with the war.
Ofri Bibas, a relative of the abducted Bibas family in Gaza, spoke at the start of the meeting: "We come here to the families of the abductees, because it is important for us to continue to remind us that the government's supreme and only obligation as far as we are concerned is to return our families, I hear all kinds of arguments over the budget, it is so unnecessary, everyone together has to do everything to bring them back, we hear the testimonies of those who return, every day is life-threatening."
"I'm not talking about Kfir, who is 11 months old, Ariel is 4, we hear about the nutritional conditions, hygiene, Shiri Shem alone. This is even if we ignore Hamas' announcement, because we think they are alive. We demand that they come back quickly. My brother, who beyond looking like half a person, received the worst news possible and alone in captivity, not knowing whether it was true or not, as far as he was concerned, it was true."
"I know his situation and he doesn't have another day to stay there, he has a hanging rope around his head and every day he tightens, the Israeli government has to do everything, we are a people that sanctifies life, it needs to open every discussion, that's all that needs to be talked about, as far as we're concerned, it's not more important, it's the future of the country, it's its face. I beg everyone who leaves the room that this is what they will have in mind, you can't wait anymore, this is the top priority and the first goal."
Noam Dan: Tell me if you gave up, the blood is on my hands | Yehuda Schlesinger
Noam Dan, from the family of Sahar and Erez Calderon, who were released and their father Ofer is still in captivity, spoke afterward: "I want to know if they gave up on us, if the government of Israel, if the State of Israel gave up on these 136 people. I can handle it if they tell me we gave up, it doesn't meet our goals. I want there to be decent enough ministers and government ministers, I want to know if they gave up on me."
"If yesterday, Pollard, who fought so hard, could get him to say to shut up the families, we are probably the hump that gets in the way. If there are 136 people here that we are pursuing for the sake of security, then there is an illusion here, there will be no settlers, there will be no one to come to the reserves, whoever will enlist, we were kidnapped in pajamas, the tuck you gave up on us, if my prime minister says at that press conference that there are 3 targets and their order is changing, as if toppling Hamas is not a task that there is time to do, the only thing that cannot be done is to return the abductees and abductees. Saar and Erez came back with testimonies I can't tell."
"The question of whether they gave up on us, whether it's too high a price, I want you to tell me. There is public deception, I am not the burden, the families of the abductees are you, they have hijacked our country and our values. The value of human life is a value, toppling Hamas is not a value, it is a mission and there will be time for it. You talk about coalition finances, as if there's nothing else, I'm not your interference, there's ongoing abandonment here and I have blood on my hands, because if I come here and you don't understand that you can't talk about something else, then I'm not okay. There will be no committee, no opposition and no coalition if we destroy this alliance between the state and the people, the state is me."
Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni later said: "I think everyone agrees that soul control and the return of prisoners is paramount."
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