The aunt of an 18-year-old taken hostage by Hamas during its Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel has lashed out at former President Barack Obama after he said “nobody’s hands are clean” in the conflict.
During the podcast “Pod Save America” that aired Tuesday and is hosted by four of his former aides, Obama said, "If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody's hands are clean. That all of us are complicit to some degree. … What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it, and what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.”
Israel has not occupied the Gaza Strip since 2005, and the Palestinians elected Hamas to rule over the territory in 2006.
After a meeting between families of hostages and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Yael Engel Lichi addressed Obama’s remarks.
“Two hundred and forty people are held hostage and the world is silent, and there are ‘buts’ and ‘perhapses,’” she said, according to The Times of Israel. “I’d like to see Mr. Obama if one of his daughters was held hostage by Hamas. In two days, she’d be out, and there’d be no ‘buts.’ There are no buts or perhapses. Hamas can be destroyed.”
Her nephew Ofir Engel — a dual Dutch-Israeli citizen from Jerusalem’s Kibbutz Ramat Rachel — was visiting his girlfriend at Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel near the Gaza border and was in touch with his family from 6 a.m., when rocket attacks began, The Times of Israel reported. He was in contact with his family until about 12:30 p.m., telling them he was hiding with the Sharabi family in their sealed room.
At 7 p.m., Nira Sharabi called the Engel family to tell them that she and her daughters had survived, but her husband, Yossi, and Ofir were taken hostage by the terrorists, who broke into the family’s sealed room and took everyone out, then told the women to sit on the grass and shot the family dog.
At that point, the Times of Israel reported, they put Yossi Sharabi, Ofir Engel, and another Be’eri teen into a small black car, driving them away. Ofir was 17 when taken hostage, and turned 18 as a captive.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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