‘We’re looking to White House’ after Israel left our sons in Gaza, mother of hostage says

By Jessica Steinberg

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9 March 2025, 6:41 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Anat Angrest, left, Viki Cohen, center and Einav Zangauker speak at a protest outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on March 9, 2025 (Courtesy Shift 101)

Hundreds of protestors are continuing to hold a sit-in outside Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, after protesters camped out at the site overnight as part of a campaign to pressure the government to make a deal to free all the remaining hostages.

Protestors take shifts, some spending the night in tents on the street, others join in the morning and afternoon.

The protestors, who man the vigil in shifts, are joined by protesters from the female-led movement Shift 101, including Einav Zangauker, Anat Angrest and Viki Cohen, all of them mothers of hostage men who accuse the country of abandoning their sons.

“Today, we find ourselves with our eyes on the White House,” says Angrest, mother of hostage soldier Matan Angrest. “Here, across from the Defense Ministry, I ask what soldiers will go to war, what mothers — like us, will send their children if they know that if they will fall into captivity, the state will leave them there. Our children, Matan [Zangauker] and Nimrod [Cohen] were left behind and the state doesn’t even speak to us about a plan to bring them back. We will entrench ourselves in every kind of protest there is, until the prime minister will understand that there is no other path to a complete victory, only with the return of the hostages,” she says.

Viki Cohen, the mother of Nimrod Cohen, another soldier who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023 after battling on the Gaza border, asks, “how could it be that the state of Israel abandoned [Nimrod] when he was fighting in a broken tank and continues to abandon him until today. Our longing has grown and we’re exhausted from this journey, we’ve said everything, we’ve pleaded, we’ve met with everyone possible — and there’s no one to listen to us. The government doesn’t listen — you do listen. Remember that our soldiers are our children, and we the mothers don’t give up.”

Macabit Meir, aunt of hostage twins Ziv and Gali Berman, says that the family doesn’t know what to expect from the Israeli negotiating team leaving Monday for Doha, but fears that only some hostages may be included in whatever deal they hash out.