At NY Israel Day parade, father of hostage soldier says US cares more about their plight than Israel

Chanting, “We will never stop, you are not alone,” hundreds of people from the New York branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum march together on Fifth Avenue in the Israel Day Parade.

Released hostage Ilana Gritzewsky and the family members of other hostages including Hagai Angrest, father of hostage Matan Angrest, and Yehuda and Yotam Cohen, father and brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, are part of the delegation.

Nimrod Cohen and Matan Angrest are two of the remaining soldiers held hostage in Gaza.

Gritzewsky, who recently received signs of life from her hostage partner Matan Zangauker, is at the front of the hostage forum block.

Standing next to her, Yehuda Cohen says that last week’s release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, which was negotiated solely by the US, proves that the Israeli government does not care about the hostages, and is only interested in occupying Gaza.

“We hoped that Trump’s visit to Qatar this week would yield something else, an end to the war and the return home of the hostages,” he says.

“It’s more important to be here than to be in Israel,” says Yotam Cohen. “There are more people paying attention here than Jerusalem.”

Leat Corinne Unger, the cousin of freed hostage Omer Shem Tov, and a resident of Alexander’s hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, says she can’t believe they are still protesting for the release of 58 more hostages.

The hostage delegation at the parade is led by a float carrying released hostages Keith and Aviva Seigel, rescued captive Andrey Kozlov, and the family members of other hostages.

The procession marches in the heat of the sunny afternoon, behind students of dozens of Jewish day schools, Chinatown dancers and other marching bands. Elsewhere, Israeli rapper Jimbo J is performing on a float for the 92nd Street Y.

Many Israeli New Yorkers are part of the Hostage Forum delegation, and can be seen wearing black Bring Them Home Now T-shirts, many with a yellow piece of tape reading “590” on them, to represent the days since October 7.

There are repeated calls of “Bring them home” and “seal the deal” in English for the duration of the parade.

An additional Hostages Forum float in back of the marchers blasts the song, “Am Yisrael Chai,” and last year’s Eurovision song, “Hurricane,” as onlookers standing several rows deep echo the call to bring them home.