‘She was so close’: Slain hostage’s cousin says military pressure killing captives
Mass demonstrations, erupting after Carmel Gat and 5 others were murdered by Hamas as IDF approached, show ‘Israeli people want life,’ not revenge, says Gil Dickmann
Gil Dickmann’s worst nightmare came true when he was told his cousin Carmel Gat, who had survived 11 months in Hamas captivity, had been killed in a tunnel in Gaza just before Israeli forces arrived.
“She was so close to hugging her father,” Dickmann, 32, told Reuters outside the Knesset, where he was lobbying lawmakers to push for a deal to secure the hostages’ release.
“We failed as a country, we failed as a community.”
Gat’s body and those of five fellow hostages were recovered by Israeli troops on September 1, triggering an outpouring of grief and mass protests among Israelis demanding a hostage deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his coalition have repeatedly said increased military pressure would ultimately bring the hostages home.
An autopsy revealed that Gat and the other five hostages had been shot in the back of the head at close range, less than 48 hours before the IDF recovered the bodies in a tunnel under Gaza.
“Military pressure kills the hostages,” said Dickmann. “We know that for a fact.”
Hamas has said in separate statements that Israel is responsible for killing the hostages, and that Netanyahu is responsible for killing them by obstructing a ceasefire agreement.
Carmel Gat was taken hostage on October 7 while staying at her parents’ home in Kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel.
She was one of 251 people kidnapped when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the south to kill nearly 1,200 people, sparking the war in Gaza. Hamas released 105 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
Talks to bring the hostages back and end the fighting in Gaza have since stalled.
Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev was killed in captivity earlier this year, said at a meeting in the Knesset Monday that a military investigation found her son had been executed by Hamas when soldiers came near to where he was being held.
Dickmann has become one of the most recognizable faces in the movement to push for a hostage deal. He has appeared often on the evening news in Israel and clips have circulated widely of his fiery speeches and screaming matches with lawmakers.
The high volume of protesters who demonstrated after Gat’s death, Dickmann said, showed that the Israeli government was disconnected from the will of the people.
“The Israeli people want life,” Dickmann said. “We fight for the lives of the hostages. We don’t fight for revenge.”
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