The last female hostage in Gaza: Aunt of Inbar Haiman pleads for Israel to recover her body

Hannah Cohen, aunt of slain hostage Inbar Haiman — the last remaining female hostage in Gaza — delivers an emotional plea before the Knesset Finance Committee, demanding that the government retrieve her niece’s body and allow the family to lay her to rest.

“Inbar is the only woman in Gaza,” Cohen says. “All the other young women were released in the last humanitarian deal, but it was decided that she would not be because she is considered dead.”

The remaining female hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel during a ceasefire between January and March, including the bodies of slain captives, except for Haiman.

Cohen accuses the government of abandoning her niece twice: once when she was kidnapped on October 7, and again when she was excluded from previous hostage deals.

“[Inbar] has been abandoned for two years. If she were the daughter of an MK or minister, you wouldn’t have left her there,” she says. “But she’s our daughter, so she’s not worth much. She’s a tool in a game between Hamas and the Israeli government.”

Haiman was attending the Nova festival when Hamas launched its assault on October 7, 2023, and she was kidnapped after evading Hamas gunmen for several hours. The army informed the family in December 2023 that she had been murdered on October 7. Her body remains held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

“I’ve cried, I’ve screamed, and nothing has helped,” says Cohen, who has appeared regularly before various Knesset committees on behalf of the Haiman family. “My cat was buried with more feeling than my niece.”

Cohen chastises lawmakers for their inaction and indifference, pointing to MKs on their phones during her testimony. “I’m sorry if my story isn’t so interesting to you. I don’t want to bother you.”

“Does anyone have a recommendation for what I should do? What would you do if you were me?” she says, appealing directly to both coalition and opposition lawmakers.