Slain captive’s mother: Netanyahu sends our children to die for his ‘lust for power’

Yael Adar, whose son Tamir was snatched to Gaza after he was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, tells the anti-government demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Begin Road that the government is “sending our children to die in the name of lust for power.”

She slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to bring back the remains of her son, who was part of Nir Oz’s civilian defense squad, which fought for hours before the IDF arrived.

“How is it that the person who went out first became transparent?” she asks. “How is it that someone who fought for the country is not being fought for by the country?”

Adar urges Netanyahu to follow in the footsteps of Menachem Begin, who also served in the premiership while heading up the Likud party, and to resign immediately.

Begin quit in 1983 amid the IDF’s rising death toll in the First Lebanon War, which he had launched the previous year.

“It’s called taking responsibility,” says Adar.

After her speech and as the 1,500-odd crowd melts away, some 100 activists, many of them bearing torches, light a bonfire on the road in front of the entrance to the IDF headquarters. They chant: “Enough of the killing and grief, the hostages are above everything.”