The father of an Israeli being held hostage in Gaza on Monday urged Israeli Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman to ease restrictions on the Israel Defense Forces that he said were hampering its efforts.
“As a father of a hostage and as a reservist fighter in the IDF … I demand the legal system let the IDF achieve decisive victory and free the hostages,” Tzvika Mor told the two at a meeting of the Knesset Law, Justice and Constitution Committee.
“Any legal action [against the IDF], subject to international law, must stop,” Mor continued.
“Look us in the eyes,” the father told them, pointing to IDF service members present in the room. “We are fighting so we can hold this discussion. We must be allowed to fight until the end. And we believe that fighting until the end will force Hamas to bring us back our hostages.”
Mor stressed that the IDF’s mission is to defend Israel. “Our military is moral not because a soldier provides water for a thirsty Arab woman in Gaza but because it protects the citizens of the State of Israel,” he said.
Before he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, Tzvika’s son Eitan Mor, 23, saved hundreds at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in the western Negev, where he was working as a security guard.
Eitan and his friends from the security team were raised in Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron.
Tzvika and his wife, Ditza, are founding members of the Tkuma (“Arising”) forum of hostages’ families, which opposes making a deal with Hamas to secure the hostages’ return. Instead, they insist that the only way to free them is by defeating Hamas and eradicating its regime in Gaza.
The Knesset committee was convened on Monday to discuss the government’s efforts against serious and organized crime.
Coalition lawmakers criticized the attorney-general for what they claimed were the constraints she has placed on the government’s ability to fight crime.
At the same meeting, parliamentarian Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) refused to allow two relatives of hostages to play footage of the hostages in captivity.
Rothman told the relatives of hostages Sasha Trufanov and Matan Angrest that screening of any recordings in committee meetings must be approved in advance.
