Michael, uncle of Ethan Mor, who was kidnapped by Hamas, spoke with Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about the meeting of families of the hostages with Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar.
“We asked Minister Zohar to abandon the Witkoff plan, which is tearing apart the families of the hostages as well as the nation, and continues the division. We want to bring everyone home together in one bus, to redeem the blank cheque given to us by President Trump,” says Mor, highlighting the main points of the proposed plan.
“The plan suggests returning half now and half later, if Hamas agrees, and maybe half of that, or half of half, as the minister himself stated, and we are not willing to accept that. We cannot let this happen. We demand to adopt the Trump plan that gave us a blank cheque to conclude this ordeal once and for all.”
Regarding the claim that most hostages will ultimately be rescued only through negotiations, he responds: “We all know, and Minister Zohar knows, that Hamas will not return all the hostages to us. The hostages are Hamas's insurance for its continued rule. Hamas knows that the day we get all the hostages back, it will be eradicated. We have declared this, and that is what they fear. Therefore, we are calling to abandon deals and negotiations because, in the end, people will remain there. We have a way to bring them back through pressure.”
“I am not talking about deploying even one soldier. Stopping deliveries of humanitarian aid is spitting in our face because 25,000 trucks have entered in the last 42 days, filling Hamas's supplies for several months ahead. Stopping deliveries does not help. We want a blockade that is all or nothing,”
Mor emphasizes that the blockade he talks about includes oils, fuels, gas, medicines, and fishing. "A blockade where fishermen from Gaza fish on the shores of the Strip and construction workers are involved in rehabilitation is not a real blockade."
“Even now, when we are not under a deal and can do whatever we want, we are not doing what needs to be done,” he asserts and adds: “We call on the Prime Minister to make a decision. We have a one-time opportunity that is time-sensitive and needs to be utilized, as time is currently working against us.”
He regrets the disputes between families of the hostages. “We did not go to the Knesset to address other families or to continue the painful divide. We went to the Knesset to demand the government to see this blockade through and not to do half a job. A blockade is either all or nothing.”
Michael recounts his last memories of Eitan. “We talked. I asked him not to be a hero before we understood the picture. I told him to lie on the floor and pretend to be dead; around 11 in the morning, contact with Ethan was lost, and I have been waiting for a year and five months for Ethan to respond to the last WhatsApp message I sent, to which he did not reply.”