Likud candidate to hostage survivor: "I wish there was a way to send you back to Hamas"

Itzik Bonzel, who was placed on the Likud list, harshly attacked 88-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz after she said in an interview that Miriam Adelson freed her from captivity, not the IDF. Bonzel, who lost his son, wrote that he wished there was a way to send her back to Hamas, and that her words indicate ingratitude and hatred for Netanyahu.

Itzik Bonzel, who was placed 29th on the Likud list for the Knesset and lost his son Amit in the war, published a harsh Facebook post against hostage survivor Yocheved Lifshitz, 88. The post came in response to Lifshitz's comments in an interview with Channel 13, where she said that "Bibi didn't bring back any hostage, Miriam Adelson bought us from Trump" and that keeping the current government after the elections would be "a disaster for the country." Bonzel wrote that he wished there was a way to turn back the clock and return her to Hamas's hands, and that her words were "pathetic, outrageous, and disconnected." He accused her of ingratitude toward the soldiers who fell in the war, and claimed that "the hatred for Netanyahu has driven you mad, crushed every trace of morality and shame." The post sparked a political and media storm, against the backdrop of the 2026 election campaign.