Eli Albag, the father of former hostage Liri Albag, revealed the secret and desperate efforts he made on his own to gather information about his daughter while she was being held hostage in Gaza, including contacts with Palestinian sources who provided details about her medical condition.

In an interview with Radio 103FM, Albag said he reached out to different channels, including figures connected to the Palestinian Authority, in an attempt to monitor Liri’s physical and emotional condition while she was held in tunnels and in terrorists’ homes in Gaza.

“I was also with the bad people,” Albag said. “I reached the bad people in the Palestinian Authority too. These were requests through lawyers — we call them lawyers — for scraps of information, to make sure they would protect them, the hostages we knew were together. They were very careful. But one day they gave me a detail, and when Liri came back, I realized they knew.”

Albag said the information he received turned out to be accurate. “They told me, ‘Everything is fine with her, she was only injured in her fingernail,’” he recalled. “I didn’t believe it. When she came back, she said, ‘Yes, I was injured in my fingernail.’ The whole time I didn’t believe it, and I still don’t believe it. You’re inside this world where there are many people who want to help, and some of them want money.”

He said his family was prepared to do whatever it took to bring Liri home. “In this war, there is nothing you don’t grab onto,” he said. “I told myself: I will turn over every stone, we as a family will turn over every stone to bring Liri home, and we did not shy away from any means. I am glad about that, and I don’t regret it for a moment.”

Those efforts also included unsuccessful attempts, such as trying to obtain a foreign passport through payment to businessman Tzvika Naveh. The money was eventually returned to the family, but the episode reflected the desperation and willingness to try any possible route.

Albag also sharply criticized Israel’s political leadership, saying he had repeatedly pleaded with decision-makers and Knesset members during Liri’s captivity to stop the inflammatory rhetoric.

“When Liri was a hostage, I met with all the decision-makers, including Knesset members, and I told them: ‘Stop this violent discourse, this inflammatory discourse. It makes me want to vomit. I just want us to have new leadership,’” he said.

Albag warned that Israeli society is nearing a dangerous breaking point and blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for failing to stop the internal division. “We are almost at civil war,” he said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu does not come out and stop it. Apparently, all this division is good for him.”

Asked about the government’s handling of October 7 and the lack of a state commission of inquiry, Albag placed direct responsibility on Netanyahu. “Many cemeteries here will be registered under the name Bibi Netanyahu,” he said. “That is the reality. In what period were 1,200 people murdered, burned, and slaughtered in one day? And now they will say it is not his fault? It is his fault, it is the chief of staff’s fault, it is intelligence’s fault, it is the Shin Bet chief’s fault. In the meantime, everyone has left except one.”

On the question of a state commission of inquiry, Albag said he never believed one would be established while Netanyahu remained prime minister. “From the first day, when they said ‘this kind of commission of inquiry, that kind of commission of inquiry,’ I laughed,” he said. “I said from the first day that there would be no commission of inquiry as long as Bibi is prime minister.

Albag also voiced support for former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot as a future leader. “Gadi Eisenkot is a worthy man; he was with us during the difficult hours,” he said. “A clean man who sees only Eretz Yisrael before his eyes. In the end, we are temporary, and the State of Israel will remain forever, and we need to know what we are leaving behind and how we are leaving it. There needs to be a change.”

He compared the country’s leadership to the business world, saying: “It cannot be that a CEO who destroyed my company remains in the company for even one day. There is no such thing, not in the business world and not in politics.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)