Freed hostage Liri Albag responds to backlash over Netanyahu criticism: ‘I fear what we have become’

The freed Israeli captive Liri Albag is fighting back against supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu who criticized her, sometimes in cruel and lewd terms, because she blamed the prime minister for her ordeal.

The backlash began on Monday when the Israeli broadcaster Kan promoted an interview with Albag, a soldier who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 477 days. In a clip, Albag explained what she would tell Netanyahu if she met with him. “You are to blame, and you need to fix what you did,” she said.

A number of Netanyahu’s supporters reportedly organized on Facebook groups to begin attacking Albag on social media, telling her that she should “go back to Gaza” and criticizing her for her weight. The firestorm grew so extreme that her family asked Kan to stop airing the clip, and the broadcaster acceded.

Now, Albag, 20, has clapped back at her critics. “To all those people who responded to me with contemptible, emotionless, inhumane things, spare yourselves, it’s a pity that this is what will be written for you on Judgment Day,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday.

Albag said that she of course also blames Hamas for her captivity and that she appreciates the sacrifices of Israeli soldiers, noting that some of those who died in Gaza were her friends. But she said the attacks that she has experienced were similar to what she heard from her Hamas captors and that she has been shocked by the political division in the country she returned to.

“I fear what we have become,” she wrote. She later added, “It is better to aim this poison at Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and our hundreds of other enemies.”

Albag was released during a two-month ceasefire in which Hamas released 38 hostages and Israel released thousands of Palestinian security prisoners. Since then, Netanyahu directed the Israeli army to resume fighting in Gaza. There remain 59 hostages in Gaza, of whom 24 are thought to remain alive.