Rabbi Elchanan Danino, father of Ori Danino, who was kidnapped and murdered in Hamas captivity, launched a sharp public attack on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday, accusing him of threatening to bring down the government if Israel moved forward with a hostage deal.
Danino's comments came in response to remarks earlier in the week by Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, the former head of the Hostage and Missing Persons Headquarters, who said Israel's leadership had refused deals that could have brought forty hostages home alive.
In an interview with 103FM, Danino told host Nissim Mishal that a great deal of information had reached him both from within the security establishment and from the cabinet, saying he personally had close ties to many people who were involved. Asked whether he was surprised by Alon's statement, Danino said the families had known this much earlier, from their own conversations with Alon and with the team handling the hostage issue on the state's behalf, calling it something the families were already very familiar with.
Danino also said hostage families had tried to act independently to secure their loved ones' release, but ran into obstacles. He said he knew a parent of a hostage who had been negotiating with Turkey for his son's release, and that after three days that parent received a warning from the Mossad to stop or be arrested, adding that there was nothing more he personally could have done, since it was beyond his ability.
The bereaved father pointed a direct finger at Smotrich, saying he knew the finance minister had repeatedly pressed the prime minister and warned he would dismantle the government if any deal, even one involving a single hostage, moved forward. He said this had been known to hostage families long before it became public.
Danino went on to describe a personal confrontation with Smotrich. He said he came to the minister's office and told him, one Torah scholar to another, to ask himself whether he could still call himself God-fearing, saying that his sons were dying every day because of Smotrich's public statements and telling him to stop. Danino said Smotrich's remarks had killed hope and killed his children again each time, and that other families had told him the same thing.
He continued with harsh criticism of the minister more broadly, saying he personally could not understand him or his statements, calling them bizarre, and suggesting that may be because the two were not raised in the same yeshiva tradition.
Danino also renewed his call for a state commission of inquiry, saying new details keep surfacing precisely because the matter has never been formally investigated. He said he was relieved, given the circumstances, that the government he blames for the disaster was not the one investigating it, and expressed hope that a different government would establish a state commission that would thoroughly examine what happened, saying new revelations keep resurfacing and reopening everything each time.
He closed with an emotional description of the reality hostage families live with, saying footage showed that his son and the five others held with him had been on the verge of release three separate times, something visible in recordings from inside the tunnels, and that hope faded after 300 days. He said his family now lives alongside grief rather than inside it, holding onto hope for a better life for Ori's siblings.
Danino's remarks follow Alon's comments at the Herzliya Conference accusing Israel's political leadership of refusing earlier hostage deals. Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu responded sharply to Alon at the time, placing responsibility for the disaster on him instead.
