Mother of former hostage Yagil Yaakov blasts minister over post on militant killed in Gaza

Renana Goma, the mother of former hostages Or and Yagil Yaakov, sharply criticized Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu in an interview with ynet after he posted on X about the killing of a militant involved in Yagil’s abduction. Eliyahu had boasted about the elimination of Zakhi Youssef Mahmoud Abu Mustafa, and Goma said his opposition to a deal for the release of children and other hostages made him complicit in the fate of the captives.

Goma said, “The minister opposed a deal that would bring back children. You are responsible, with this government, for the abduction of 250 civilians, including my children. I think that a person who opposed a deal to free children and women should at the very least keep quiet. I did not hear him apologize.” She added that in his post he wrote, “We did not forget you,” and asked, “Did you not forget us? So where was the help? Where were you at the funerals and the shiva calls?”

According to the report, the IDF and Shin Bet struck southern Gaza last Friday and killed Abu Mustafa, who served as commander of the Nukhba force of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. He took part in the Oct. 7 massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz and in Yagil Yaakov’s kidnapping, when Yagil was 12.

The IDF also released a photo showing Abu Mustafa in Israeli territory during the abduction of Yagil Yaakov from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7.