⚠️ Hostage mother: Trump envoy Witkoff said Israel won't occupy Gaza or expand war www.haaretz.com/israel-news/... Article in 🧵👇
Replies
-
He lied to you
-
What's left to do? We must initiate more actions because there's simply no choice. What's the alternative? Sitting at home? We must take to the streets."
-
It's reinventing the wheel every time. We've done many things: marches to embassies, going to conferences, we've issued statements and sent delegations everywhere.
-
That isn't clear yet. These days, some people are even planning a protest flotilla to Gaza.
"What's next is a good question," she concludes. "We ask the Hostage and Missing Families Forum how we'll continue, how we'll get the public into the streets?
-
And yet, despite the crowds in the streets and polls showing that a clear majority of the public wants the war to end, the government continues its course. "No one is listening to our screams. Their ears are shut," says Vicky Cohen. She makes it clear that Israelis must continue the fight. How?
-
A bonfire was lit for the first time in months, and the hostage families, including Yehuda Cohen, wore sackcloth as a sign of mourning, corresponding to the symbolic date that fell on Shabbat – Tisha B'Av.
-
The videos that shocked the hostages' families significantly boosted the number of protesters last Saturday evening. Thousands of people filled Tel Aviv's streets for the first time in a long time. Hostage Square quickly filled up, as did Begin Street by the IDF headquarters.
-
"We have no idea what conditions Nimrod is being held in," says Vicky Cohen. "It scares me as a mother. I want him back, before there won't be someone to bring back." The Israeli government knows the hostages' conditions and has done nothing. It's complicit in this Holocaust."
-
A long time has passed since that video. Evyatar David was also shown in a video at that time, and he looked in better condition than he does now.
-
Hostage Square is filling up again
The Cohen family is not entirely aware of Nimrod's physical condition. They saw him walking on his feet in Iair Horn's release video, in which Nimrod is shown but with a blurred face and was only identified by the tattoo he got shortly before his abduction.
-
I constantly ask myself if they'll leave the hostages behind. If they do, we won't forgive them for that. They've given up on the lives of people who could have been saved. Everything for the sake of revenge and slogans of victory and defeating Hamas."
-
Witkoff also said the United States has a plan, but he can't give details. What plan? Is part of it conquering Gaza?" says Vicky.
"How will an occupation help free the hostages? I can't understand this.
-
"But I know, because we hear, among others, [lead Israeli hostage negotiator Ron] Dermer, saying, yes, we must pursue the fighting with full force. So who's lying here? Who's deceiving the public? It's a kind of fraud. What's correct here?
-
Vicky told Witkoff, "We're saying that Israel wants to prolong the fighting or conquer the Gaza Strip. That objective contradicts saving the hostages." She says that Witkoff told her that there would be no occupation or expansion of the war.
-
"Eight months have passed since [U.S. President Donald] Trump declared that the war was over. We met here three months ago. The hostages' condition has worsened. How will it end?" Witkoff's reply was long, but his bottom line was that Hamas is to blame and doesn't want a deal.
-
There are miserable souls sitting there. They and everyone who is part of the government that is doing nothing."
Nimrod's parents met U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. Yehuda Cohen, Nimrod's father, in his direct and critical style, told Witkoff,
-
We're talking about more than 600 days. This time, you sound different. In despair.
"It's not despair as much as having a lot of anger at the disconnected government. This disconnection is causing it to do difficult things like giving up on our children's lives. How can this be?
-
so his spirit wouldn't break and he'd continue having faith," she says. "Despair is the worst thing there is beyond the starvation and agonies. If they lose hope, they won't survive."
-
Every soldier knows his discharge date from the moment he reports for duty at the induction center. Nimrod's mother hopes that he might not have paid attention when the day arrived. "Even on his birthday, I said it would be better if he didn't remember the date,
-
When asked what she thinks her son would do if he were home, Vicky replied, "He'd probably be with his friends, go to the sea and have a good time. He'd also start planning his [post-army] trip."
-
It's not just the videos and press releases that weigh on the Cohen family. Nimrod was due to turn in his IDF identity card and be discharged on Monday. In fact, he has been held in Hamas captivity for most of his service.
-
"I'm angry. I'm furious. I'm frustrated by the situation we've come to," she said. "This is an alienated government, which is prepared to abandon my son and the other hostages to die in agony. I can't get the pictures from the videos out of my mind. I just want to cry, and that breaks my heart."
-
A conversation with Vicky on Monday, following the publication of videos of Rom Braslavsky and Evyatar David from captivity and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remark that he "is working to free the hostages through military force," sounded different.
-
Vicky Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, tends to speak politely and calmly despite being constantly worried about the condition of her son, who is being held in the tunnels in Gaza.
