Mother of freed hostage: Instead of taking responsibility for Oct. 7, government is preventing probe

Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod was abducted on October 7, 2023, and released last October, says the Hamas-led onslaught followed “15 years of dangerous policy” in which “the State of Israel, which sent my son to fight for it, funded Hamas and the tunnels in which my son was held.”

“My country, which I was sure would do everything to protect him, abandoned him,” Cohen says during the pre-election rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. “The government isn’t taking responsibility; on the contrary, it’s doing everything to prevent the most basic thing — a state commission of inquiry.”

“I won’t let the truth about what happened on October 7 be buried like my son was buried underground, in dark tunnels, for two years,” she says. “The heads of the security establishment have left — now it’s time for the political echelon to take responsibility.”

Standing alongside about two dozen people affected by the onslaught, including former hostages Yocheved Lifshitz and Gadi Mozes, Cohen appeals to the public: “When you get to the polls, remember everyone — those who were abducted, who were murdered, who fell in battle; survivors of the massacre, the wounded in body in mind, the families whose lives collapsed.”

“We’re the people. The power’s in our hands,” she adds.