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Live updates: Israel attacks Lebanon as US pushes for ceasefire

Live updates: Israel attacks Lebanon as US pushes for ceasefire

Vaseline 2 months ago

The family of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen (Yotam, Viki and Romi Cohen) during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City on September 26.

The family of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli hostage held in Gaza, is visiting New York this week to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. The Cohens criticize him for focusing on Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying the leader should instead focus on a hostage situation and a ceasefire.

“We need to talk about the hostages and we need to keep the topic alive so we don’t forget them,” said Nimrod’s sister Romi Cohen.

The family criticized Netanyahu for not returning the hostages still held in Gaza as the fighting moves north to the Israel-Lebanon border.

“Revenge,” said his brother Yotam Cohen, “was the first goal of the war.”

“Now it’s Lebanon, and there’s no deal,” said his mother Viki Cohen. “The first priority the government says is to destroy Hamas. The other priority was to get the hostages back, but this was not the main goal.”

Viki Cohen and her husband Yehuda also spoke at the protest at the UN, accusing Netanyahu of continuing the war to stay in power.

The parents of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, Yehuda and Viki Cohen, speak during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City on September 26.

“I want my son alive,” he told CNN. ‘I want him to get his life back. I want him to be free.”

Zahiro Shahar Mor, the nephew of the slain Israeli hostage Avraham Munder, also warned of a conflict in Lebanon.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza “was a mistake from day one,” he said. ‘Don’t make the mistake. Stop the war immediately.”

Eran Etzion, former deputy national security adviser and head of policy planning at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, was also at the protest.

He said he flew to New York “to give voice to the majority of Israelis who are interested in an immediate hostage rescue and a ceasefire agreement.”

Netanyahu, he said, is a “rogue prime minister who is acting against the national interest of our country, against the expressed will and interests of the vast majority of Israelis.”