“The window of opportunity is now!” they chanted, calling on Israeli leaders to secure a deal that would free all hostages “in a single, immediate phase,” warning that after 562 days in captivity “we risk condemning them to death and losing any chance to recover their remains.”
Vicky Cohen, whose son Nimrod Cohen is among the hostages, addressed him directly from a makeshift stage: “Nimrod, my beloved child, this is Mama speaking. We miss you terribly. Your room and your friends are waiting for you. Don’t lose hope — we will bring you home.”
Speaking before the demonstration, Cohen said she and other families hoped their cries might penetrate the network of tunnels where their loved ones are held.
“It’s unthinkable that yesterday, while soldiers fall and 59 remain captive, the government was celebrating Mimouna,” she said, referring to the North African holiday marking the end of Passover. “They have neither conscience nor morality. We, the citizens, must protest.”
Yehuda Cohen, Nimrod’s father, followed his wife to the platform and directed his remarks at those financing Hamas: “We know you cannot hear us 40 meters underground, but we speak to those responsible — those backing Hamas. Netanyahu, resign! You’ve failed. You live off the blood of our soldiers and hostages.”
Ilana Gritzewsky, who survived captivity herself, called out to her partner Matan Zangauker, still held in Gaza: “Matan — can you hear me? I’m alive, but my soul is with you in that tunnel. Don’t give up. The whole nation is fighting for you.”
Also present was Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of American citizen Edan Alexander, who served at the “White House” post near where families stood. “We came to let them hear our cry,” she said. “His voice has gone unheard for a year and a half.”
Representatives of other hostage families included Sylvia Cunio, mother of David and Ariel; and relatives of Omri Miran, Bar Kuperstein, Inbar Haiman and Itay Chen.
On Saturday evening, Hamas released a video of hostage Elkana Bohbot, in which they staged a phone call to his wife Rivka, son Ram, mother Ruhama and brother Uriel. “Rivka, I dream of you every day,” he says. Menashe Harush, Bohbot’s uncle, called the footage “disgraceful” and urged that “they all be freed at once, not in stages.”
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A few hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a statement confirming that Hamas had rejected Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal. “I will not yield to the murderers who carried out the worst massacre since the Holocaust,” he said. “If we submit to Hamas’s dictates now, all the gains won by our fighters will be lost.”