Families rally near Gaza border for immediate hostage deal, call out to captive loved ones

Families rallying for a hostage deal near Kibbutz Nir Oz call out across the border with Gaza in the hopes their captive loved ones can hear their cries of support.

Menashe Harush, whose hostage nephew Elkana Bohbot appeared Saturday in another Hamas propaganda film, calls the video “obscene” during the demonstration on the Gaza border.

Harush, alongside several other families, urges the release of all hostages through a deal in one fell swoop, rather than separate stages.

“We don’t have time to wait; they need to get out of there,” he says. “We feel the situation isn’t good. We are worried. Every day there is a dangerous day.”

On a stage erected for the protest, Yehuda Cohen, father of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, heaps scathing criticism on the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We know there’s no chance you’ll hear us 40 meters underground,” he says to his captive son, “but I’m conveying these words directly to the one to blame for you being there, the criminally accused and funder of Hamas,” in reference to Netanyahu. “He continues to wage war at the expense of the hostages… of your blood, in order to survive. Netanyahu, resign! You’ve failed, and that’s to put it mildly.”

In English, Cohen calls on US President Donald Trump to “force Netanyahu to end this bloody war… so we can get our loved ones back home.”