In Israel, frustration grows as hostages remain in captivity

DW (English)

With 50 hostages still held in Gaza 22 months after the Hamas attacks on Israel, their relatives are growing more frustrated. Some are losing faith that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ever strike a deal to bring them home, as DW’s Tania Krämer reports from Tel Aviv.

Transcript

00:00A sit-in in Tel Aviv in front of the Likud party headquarters, Prime Minister Benjamin

00:05Netanyahu's party.

00:07Among the demonstrators is Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod has been held by Hamas in Gaza

00:14for 22 months.

00:16He wants his son back.

00:19Only ending the war and a full withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip will bring

00:25all the hostages.

00:26The reason it's not happening is because Netanyahu is only working for his personal

00:31interest.

00:32Netanyahu is only working for his coalition interest.

00:37We have those Smotrich and Bengvir who said out loud they don't want to end the war.

00:43Not ending the war is actually saying we don't want Nimrod Cohen, my son, be released.

00:50And that's even though there's widespread support among Israelis to end the war to get

00:56all the hostages out.

00:5885% of people want to stop the war and have all the 50 hostages returned, 49 male hostages

01:07and one female.

01:09We know 20 of them are still alive.

01:11We want an agreement to bring all of them back at once and to stop this terrible war, which

01:17at this point we understand only serves the government.

01:24According to the deal that was being discussed by Israel and Hamas, only half of the 20 living

01:31hostages would be allowed home.

01:34It sparked a painful debate about who gets to decide their fate.

01:39Yehuda Cohen last heard from his son through other hostages released in February.

01:45He was captured while serving as a soldier at the Gaza border on October 7.

01:50My son Nimrod, soldier, one of the youngest there.

01:54He's not a father.

01:55He's not wounded.

01:56He doesn't have any diseases, so he'll be the last to come out, I must admit.

02:04But truth is the truth, and that's why we are fighting for a total deal for releasing

02:12all the hostages.

02:13That's why we are fighting for the end of the war.

02:18The group moves on to join a larger demonstration at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv.

02:27Some Israelis hold pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza and the hunger crisis.

02:33But the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not the main focus of the protest here.

02:39It's about the hostages and their plight and captivity.

02:43Yehuda Cohen is frustrated about the lack of progress.

02:46We didn't raise hopes of what's going on because we saw it in the past.

02:52We saw it more than a year going on along with Netanyahu's sabotaging deal.

02:58Well, unfortunately, we are used to it.

03:01We are not raising hope because we don't want to be disappointed and we are disappointed.

03:11Cohen says he tries to keep going.

03:13But his faith in the government to secure Diazun remains low.

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