Latest news with #AvnerNetanyahu
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Netanyahu sparks outrage with comments on how war has impacted family
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked outrage by claiming he understands the personal cost of the war, citing his son's postponed wedding. Netanyahu made the controversial remarks in front of a hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, hours after it was hit by Iranian missiles, injuring at least 40 people. His comments drew sharp criticism from political opponents and relatives of Israeli hostages, who highlighted the profound human suffering caused by the conflict. The incident occurred amidst a week of escalating missile exchanges between Israel and Iran, and ongoing criticism of Netanyahu's leadership regarding the war in Gaza and his legal challenges. This is the second time his son Avner's wedding has been cancelled due to missile threats, with anti-government protests previously planned for the event.
The Independent
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Netanyahu: I understand the true cost of war - my own son had to postpone his wedding
Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked outrage after suggesting he understands the 'personal cost' of Israel 's war with Iran - because his son had to postpone his wedding. The Israeli prime minister made the remarks in a solemn address to TV cameras while standing in front of the ruins of a hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, hours after it was hit by Iranian missiles. Officials said at least 40 people were injured in the attack on Thursday. 'There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,' Netanyahu said, comparing the attacks on Israel to the blitz in Britain during World War II. 'Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt. This is the second time that my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.' Israel and Iran have been exchanging missile attacks for a week after Netanyahu instructed the IDF to target Tehran's nuclear sites and top military officials. The Israeli authorities say 24 Israeli civilians have so far been killed by Iran 's retaliatory strikes, with footage showing Iranian missiles slamming into residential areas. Meanwhile, Washington-based human rights activists estimate 639 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Iran. Netanyahu's comments angered his political opponents and the relatives of Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza. Anat Angrest, whose son Matan has been held hostage by Hamas since the militant group's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, said in a post on X that the personal cost of the war 'didn't go unnoticed' by her and her family. 'I have been in the hellish dungeons of Gaza for 622 days now,' she wrote. 'I'm waiting for you, Prime Minister, to save him." Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member for the Democrats, described Netanyahu as a 'narcissist'. 'I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,' Kariv said. Netanyahu, who is currently on trial in Israel for corruption and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, has faced criticism for the ongoing war in Gaza and for being out of touch with everyday civilians. Israeli opposition figures have criticised the prime minister for continuing his war in Gaza, which has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. A total of 53 hostages remain in captivity, of whom Israel believes 30 are dead. Hamas killed around 1,200 people during their cross-border attacks on 7 October, 2023, and took 251 people hostage. Previous ceasefires have seen dozens of hostages released from captivity in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Netanyahu's government says Hamas must be eradicated, but after nearly two years of war, the militant organisation continues to fight in some areas of Gaza. Peace talks between Hamas and Israel, meanwhile, have broken down. Several anti-government organisations previously announced they were planning demonstrations in the area of the wedding of Netanyahu's son, Avner. Iron roadblocks and barbed wire fences had already been erected within a 100-metre radius of the venue, the upscale Ronit's Farm event hall in Kibbutz Yakum, north of Tel Aviv, when the Netanyahu family announced last weekend that the wedding would be postponed. Police had also announced that all airspace within a mile radius of the venue would be closed during the ceremony, except for police helicopters.
The National
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Benjamin Netanyahu bemoans postponement of son's wedding due to Iran war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war with Iran has reached into his own household, disclosing that his son's wedding had to be postponed. 'This war has not spared my family either,' he said in a televised address at the location of a missile attack that devastated the area. 'This is the second time my son, Avner, has been sent away, due to a threat from the sea and missile warnings. His wedding had to be postponed – clearly, a very personal cost.' Mr Netanyahu's comments came as Israel grapples with rising casualties and mounting pressure on the home front. Around him were hundreds of Israelis whose homes had been damaged, while dozens were injured. Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran last Friday, killing hundreds of Iranians. In response, Tehran fired missiles at Israeli targets and residential areas, killing at least 24 people, injuring dozens more and causing widespread destruction. Mr Netanyahu, who has long cast himself as a wartime leader, appeared to be appealing to a sense of collective sacrifice. Though some Israelis saw Mr Netanyahu's remarks as an attempt to personalise the national struggle, many others derided them as misplaced and self-serving. 'I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,' said Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost' of postponing son's wedding
Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London under the Blitz, and pointed to his own family's sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son's wedding. The Israeli prime minister's remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Be'er Sheva, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday. The stunning comments also added grist to the arguments of his critics that the prime minister is increasingly cut off emotionally from the daily realities of Israel and the region, after more than 17 years in office. Seeking to underline his family's shared hardship with ordinary Israelis, Netanyahu adopted a Churchillian tone when pointing out that this was not the first time his son Avner's wedding had needed to be postponed, and that Avner's fiancee was also disappointed, not to mention the thwarted mother of the groom, Netanyahu's wife, Sara. 'It really reminds me of the British people during the Blitz. We are going through a Blitz,' Netanyahu said, referring to the wartime Nazi bombing of Britain in which 43,000 civilians died. 'There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,' he went on. The Israeli authorities say that 24 Israeli civilians have so far been killed. Washington-based human rights activists have estimated the Iranian civilian death toll to be 263. 'Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt,' Netanyahu said at the Soroka hospital, which was struck on Thursday morning by an Iranian missile, causing light injuries. 'This is the second time that my son Avner has canceled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.' Avner Netanyahu's wedding was first scheduled in November and had to be postponed for security reasons. Then it was due to take place on Monday, despite threat of opposition protests. Reports that the prime minister was going to take a few days off for the event may have contributed to Iran's complacency on Friday morning when the leadership was taken unawares by Israel's aerial attack. The Israeli backlash to Netanyahu's nuptial comments was instant and furious. Anat Angrest, whose son Matan has been held hostage since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, observed that the suffering 'didn't go unnoticed by my family either'. 'I have been in the hellish dungeons of Gaza for 622 days now,' Angrest said in a post on the social media platform X. Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member for the Democrats, called Netanyahu a 'borderless narcissist'. 'I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,' Kariv said. He was contemptuous of Netanyahu's claim that his wife, Sara, notorious in Israeli for her expensive tastes, was a hero. 'The doctors who leave home for night shifts are the heroes,' Kariv said. 'The teachers who keep our children together on Zoom and phone calls are the heroes.' Amir Tibon, an Israeli journalist, argued that public figures whose children had been killed in combat would never draw attention to the fact. 'But there are no surprises with Netanyahu,' Tibon said. 'Even in moments when a personal example is most needed, he is first and foremost concerned with himself.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ordinary Israelis React to the Attack on Iran
Israelis take shelter in an underground station as they anticipate another missile attack by Iran on June, 17 2025. Credit - Ilia Yefimovich—Getty Images Israel has taken on the eerie quiet of a ghost town. Shops are closed, streets nearly empty. The occasional car races to its destination. In the supermarkets, many shelves are empty, usually of basic necessities: No bread, no milk, no eggs, no diapers and no bottled water for what may be extended stays in bomb shelters. Israelis have stocked up not knowing what their government is planning and how this will unfold. Israel's sudden attack on Iran that began at 3 a.m. on June 13, Friday, didn't catch only the Iranians by surprise. No one in Israel expected a full-scale assault—not before the end of the school year; before talks on Iran's nuclear program ended between the U.S. and Iran; or before the controversially lavish, wedding of Avner Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to take place three days later. When the sirens first went off in towns and cities across the country very early Friday morning, many people stayed in bed, knowing that earlier campaigns had wiped out the rocket capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Israel's western flank, and Hezbollah, on its northern border. An impending attack wasn't on their radar. 'I was preparing food for the Sabbath on Friday morning, kubbeh and borekas, and I turned on the radio and was shocked,' said Rivka Benayim, a cashier at a supermarket in Jerusalem. Her store had no baby wipes, fresh chicken or tomatoes and very little milk. 'I had no idea we were at war with Iran.' Israelis now realize that a tit-for-tat with Iran is nothing like a barrage of rockets from Palestinian militants in the Gaza, or from Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. The reach and destructive power of Iran's missiles has made everyone feel vulnerable. 'Hamas fired rockets made out of traffic sign poles,' said Shlomo Alkobi, 25, an employee at a cellphone company service center, at work in a job classified by the Isareli government as essential. 'Those are like kindergarten games compared to Iran's ballistic missiles.' So it is that, since the first barrages landed, even more Israelis than usual have been heeding the Home Front Command's alerts that flash on their cellphone screens, TV sets and radio programs when the missiles get close, often accompanied by a frightening screeching alarm. In Israel, there are three types of "safe space." Any apartment building constructed after1992 has a reinforced room, or mamad, in each apartment (a requirement put in place after Saddam Hussein's Iraq launched Scud missiles toward it during the First Gulf War). Older buildings may have a shared bomb shelter under ground. For people who find themselves driving when the sirens sound, or on foot, or in a building with no reinforced space, the only option is to run to a public shelters that dot populated areas around the country. During a Hamas missile barrage, an elderly relative of mine would settle for sitting on the steps in the stairwell of his second-floor apartment in Bat Yam, a coastal suburb of Tel Aviv. But with the Iranian salvos, he has been making his way down to the building's first-floor bomb shelter a couple times a day and waiting with the rest of the tenants for the all clear. His first time down there, he was appalled to discover it was filled with a thick layer of dust, and the clutter of bicycles and a baby carriage. On the second night, his focus was elsewhere. An Iranian missile struck an apartment building 500 meters away from his. Five people were killed. 'We could feel the shock waves underground,' he said. Many Israelis are shocked by the level of destruction. While Israel's military does not reveal damage to its installations, it encourages people to film damage to civilian areas. Israeli reporters say they have never seen such devastation, at least in person; the results of their military's work in Gaza appears on TV. Read more: Lawmakers Seek to Limit Trump From Dragging U.S. Into Israel-Iran War Some communities are entirely unprotected. The desert villages of Bedouin Israelis lack shelters because the government refuses to recognize their settlements. Residents have been entirely exposed; some have taken cover under highway bridges. Many villages of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian (who account for 20 percent of the country's population) also lack shelters. But in those that do have them, the assumption that they would not be targeted by Iranian missiles has been enough to keep some from seeking whatever shelter might be available. The illusion shattered Saturday night, when a missile that appeared bound for the northern city of Haifa struck a villa in nearby Tamra, killing four women from the Khatib family. Locals point to video taken from their rooftops and say the missile fell after an Iron Dome anti-missile battery tried to intercept it, changing its trajectory. The victims had a safe room built in their home, but had not entered it. Israel has long claimed that it avoids civilian casualties, while accusing Iran of intentionally targeting noncombatants. But Israeli strikes on Iran, which began with precise strikes on leading regime figures, have also killed scores of civilians. A human rights group put the total at 406 through June may also be targeting senior security figures in Israeli residential buildings. Over the last year, Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, has uncovered nearly 30 cases of espionage and subversion by Israelis, mostly Jews, recruited to work for Iran. In some cases, Tehran sought to gather information on former senior officials in the security establishment, including their home address and daily routines. In Rishon L'Tzion, south of Tel Aviv, an Iranian missile struck near the former home of a former high ranking security official early Saturday, June 14. Asked if he believed he might have been the target, he told Maariv newspaper that if he was, the Iranians 'haven't updated their lists since 2007.' Israel's death toll reached 24 in four nights—far less than in Iran, with more than 220 killed—and a fraction of the number of Palestinians killed in an average day in Gaza. Yet for Israelis, it's a jarring loss. In the 17 years between 2004 to 2021, only 32 civilians were killed inside Israel by rockets out of Gaza. Even so, many here are excited by the attack on Iran. Israelis are expecting nothing less than regime change. Religious Jews were filmed dancing in celebration in an underground parking lot where they took cover during an air raid siren. 'They have been threatening to destroy us for years,' said Alkobi, the cell phone merchant. 'We are removing the threat. I want to annihilate them. Assassinate the whole regime.' Ayala Hasson, an anchor on Israel's national television, called it a 'dramatic historic day' and had difficulty suppressing her smile. On the radio, an Israeli news reporter thanked a pilot for his service before interviewing him. Read more: Air Supremacy Over Tehran Gives Israel a Decisive Edge—And Raises New Risks But not all Israelis are cheering. Some expressed wariness of how the new war would end. Others remained focused on the one it interrupted. 'They no longer open every TV program with a mention of the number of hostages and the days in captivity,' Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itsik died in capativity, wrote on X. 'There is no discussion in the studios about the kidnapped people…From today, we are counting barrages, missiles, and deaths, not hostages. Netanyahu reset the war clock, and erased the calendar of desolation. Don't forget, echo, keep counting, don't be silent until they return.' Contact us at letters@
