Netanyahu apologises to Israeli hostage for taking so long to secure his release

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologised to a freed Israeli hostage for taking so long to secure his release.

Eli Sharabi was released last month as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

According to a statement from Mr Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli leader told him: “I am sorry that it took us so long. We fought hard to get you out.”

A gaunt looking Mr Sharabi was released after 16 months in captivity to discover that his wife and two teenage daughters had been killed in Hamas’s attack on October 7 2023.

Mr Sharabi, who has spoken of the tough conditions in captivity, is set to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday.

Mr Netanyahu said the meeting is important and Mr Sharabi responded, according to the statement, that perhaps “with joint efforts, we will bring this whole saga to an end”.

Meanwhile, mourners in Israel attended the last of the funerals for eight of the hostages whose bodies were returned from Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire.

Crowds lined the long route of the funeral procession for Itzhak Elgarat, who was 68 when he was abducted by Hamas militants from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Israel has said he was killed in captivity but the circumstances surrounding his death are not known. His brother Danny told mourners that in their last phone conversation, on October 7,2023, his brother had said to him: “Danny, this is the end.”

“Unfortunately you were right,” Danny Elgarat said in the eulogy for his brother. “We fought with all our might to prove you wrong. We failed. We didn’t do enough.”

A prominent figure in the public struggle for the release of the hostages, Danny Elgarat railed against Mr Netanyahu for failing to bring back his brother alive.

“The enemy who caused your death was not the one who abducted you but the one who abandoned you,” he said.

“You managed to survive the kidnapping, the kidnappers, and the injury for many months, and in the end, did not survive your own prime minister’s torpedoing (of the hostage deal) and abandonment.”