Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited relatives of hostages killed in Gaza to a meeting at his home, several families told AFP, as criticism mounts over his response to the hostage crisis.

“I was invited to meet the prime minister,” Sharon Sharabi, whose brothers Yossi and Eli were kidnapped from Kibbutz Beeri on October 7, told AFP.

In February the army told Sharabi that his brother Yossi had been killed and his body was in the hands of Hamas. He said he would accept the invite.

But a family member of a hostage who died in captivity told AFP on condition of anonymity that she had declined the invitation.

“He remembered a little late to invite us,” she said.