Netanyahu passing up chance for ‘full deal’ on Gaza, mother of hostage says

Viki Cohen, the mother of Hamas-held hostage Nimrod Cohen, stresses to a massive Jerusalem rally that there is “a full deal on the table” which Netanyahu is refusing to sign off on.

“There is a full deal on the table, a deal that will return my son and every hostage,” she says outside the prime minister’s residence. “My sensitive boy… I have no idea how he is coping in the hellfire of Gaza.”

She says that several hostages’ families have received phone calls from intelligence officials this past week telling them the recent expansion of the IDF’s operation in Gaza City puts their loved ones at risk.

“It was explained to some of the families that the level of danger of their loved ones rose significantly after the operation in Gaza,” she warns.

Cohen claims that when “Hamas demanded a partial deal, he [Netanyahu] demanded a full deal, and when Hamas agreed to a full deal, he demanded a partial one and ramped up this unnecessary and political war.”

Israel and Hamas had been close to clinching a deal over the summer, according to reports, but efforts fell apart due to Hamas’s demands that an agreement lead to an end to fighting, while Israel sought to retain the right to continue pushing the offensive after a 60-day pause in exchange for roughly half the hostages.

In recent weeks, the government has adopted the position that it will only agree to a deal that frees all hostages, which would mean ending the war, while Hamas has said it would agree to the partial framework previously accepted by Israel.

“My son can return home tomorrow morning alive, and the prime minister is undermining this,” Cohen says, as the crowd boos the prime minister. “My child will not be sacrificed on the altar of politics.”