Leaked recordings revealed a tense meeting between Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kish and families of prisoners in Gaza, exposing despair, anger, and a widening trust gap between Israelis and their government.

The Israeli minister explicitly admitted the government’s “isolation” internationally and its inability to manage the crisis, a rare statement revealing the depth of Israel’s political crisis.

The meeting, whose recording was broadcast by Hebrew Channel 12 on Tuesday evening, took place amid escalating international and military pressures and the widening scope of the war. Family members accused the minister and the government of “stalling deals,” “causing the deaths of their loved ones,” and “acting detached from reality and international facts.”

The biggest shock in the recordings was the minister’s ignorance—he is a member of the small political-security cabinet (the ‘kabinett’)—about any details of proposed plans or deals. Kish’s hesitant and repeated responses of “I don’t know” and “They didn’t tell me” painted a picture of a paralyzed and uncoordinated government.

One relative of the prisoners shouted in protest: “You ministers know nothing about the deal. Do you know where I learned about it? From the American official, Marco Rubio!” This statement more than any other summarizes the idea of isolation: the information that should come to an Israeli minister from inside the war room comes to him through the families of the abductees who receive it from senior American diplomats.

Another relative confirmed this idea with an almost historic statement: “You are marginalized… your leader does whatever he wants and you are ostracized,” to which Kish agreed: “That’s true, and the government is also divided.”

At the height of the argument, after being accused of isolation and marginalization, Minister Kish did not deny it but openly admitted it in one of the recording’s most prominent moments, saying: “That’s true, we are isolated. You’re right, we are not hiding.” He later repeated the idea describing the way the war is managed: “First, the whole war is proceeding this way… because we are incapable…”

This admission not only concerns isolation from the angry public but also reflects, as families stated, diplomatic isolation where American channels have become the sole source of information, and internal isolation within the government corridors themselves, where decisions seem confined to a narrow circle away from the ministers.

The families left no doubt about their feelings. One relative said: “You will kill him, you will send soldiers to kill him instead of offering a deal,” another warned: “Your hands will be stained with blood, all of you,” and a prisoner’s mother threatened: “Woe to you if my son is not alive tomorrow,” all reflecting a complete collapse of trust in the “military pressure” strategy adopted by Netanyahu’s government.

According to a narrative told by one attendee, six prisoners were killed on September 1 due to this strategy that failed to save them, fueling the families’ feeling that their children “will be killed in the name of continuing the war.”

As a reaction to this feeling of marginalization and isolation experienced by the government, the families announced a major protest escalation in Jerusalem today, Wednesday, including gathering in front of the Knesset, setting up a protest tent in front of the Prime Minister’s residence, and an evening demonstration, sending a clear message that their patience with an “isolated,” “marginalized,” and “ineffective” government has run out.

The leaks were not just an ordinary dialogue but a document unveiling a deep governance crisis in Israel. The admission by a senior Israeli minister that his government is “isolated” and not in control of crucial negotiations is not only a self-condemnation but a dangerous indicator of a split between the political leadership and the urgent popular will to end the crisis, pushing the fate of the prisoners, the future of the war, and Israel into a dark unknown territory.