On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited for a meeting family members of hostages murdered in Gaza captivity, amid criticism that he had not done so while he has met with the families of rescued hostages.
The meeting is reportedly set to include two rounds, with the first expected to take place this week.
Father of Shani Louk says he won't attend
Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, says he will not attend. “When there are burials, when there are disasters, Netanyahu simply disconnects himself. He doesn’t come and doesn’t care. I was invited but I said I do not want to attend because it has turned into a circus,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
He noted that only “when there are successes,” Netanyahu “jumps on it,” Louk also said he was planning on launching a new political party situated between the Likud, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich on the political spectrum. “The time has come for change,” he said.
He affirmed that there must be an end to "the lawlessness in the country," which is occurring "in all fields."
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum noted that the niece of Michel Nisenbaum, Ayala Harel, had been invited to the meeting.
The bodies of Louk and Nisenbaum were retrieved by the IDF from the Gaza Strip in May.
Nisenbaum’s body was retrieved along with that of Orion Hernandez Radoux and Hanan Yablonka. According to military intelligence, the three had been murdered on October 7 and their bodies were taken to Gaza. Louk’s body was recovered alongside bodies of Itzik Gelernter, Ron Binyamin, and Amit Buskila.
Later on Tuesday, kibbutz Nir Oz released a statement which read, "We, the families of Nir Oz, call on the Prime Minister to come to Kibbutz Nir Oz and meet all the families of kidnapped and murdered of Nir Oz, those who are kept alive and those who were murdered in captivity and in the kibbutz.
"Along with the meetings, we once again call on the prime minister to come to the scene of the massacre, for the first time since October 7, to hear the kibbutz community, and to see with his own eyes the extent of the massacre and neglect the community went through in the complete absence of external protection. The abandonment from which we would be able to begin to rebuild as a kibbutz and as a nation only after the return of our dear ones from captivity, both the living and the murdered," the statement added.
"The Nir Oz community calls on the prime minister to demonstrate during his visit his commitment to work for the return of the hostages, the rehabilitation of the Western Negev and its communities, and the restoration of trust between the people and the leadership," the kibbutz concluded.
Eve Young and Gadi Zaig contributed to this article.