Over a year after her son was abducted by Hamas militants, Israeli mother Viki Cohen is still holding onto hope and calling for urgent action from the government to bring him home.
Her son, Nimrod Cohen, was just 19 when he was taken during the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel.
Now 21, he remains in captivity, one of dozens still held more than 14 months after the deadly attack.
Speaking to journalists in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Cohen urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to open dialogue with Hamas in order to secure the safe return of her son and other captives.
“As a mother, I don’t know when I’ll see him again,” she said tearfully. “But I will do everything in my power to bring him back.”
Cohen is a member of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a civil group working to raise awareness and pressure leaders to take action.
She revealed that her son had endured psychological trauma during his time in captivity.
“He was tortured. He saw people being executed. It has taken a toll on him mentally,” she said.
The October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people and the abduction of over 250 individuals, many of whom were civilians attending a music festival.
While approximately 200 hostages have been released in stages, around 56 remain in Gaza, and some are believed to have died.
Cohen said she felt a renewed sense of hope following the recent release of American-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander by Hamas, reportedly ahead of a diplomatic visit by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
She encouraged the Israeli leadership to pursue similar diplomatic channels. “If there’s a way through negotiation, we must take it,” she insisted.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has staged several demonstrations both locally and abroad in a bid to attract international attention to the ongoing hostage situation.
Daniel Shek, a former Israeli diplomat and diplomatic adviser to the Forum, acknowledged the difficulty in securing the captives’ freedom.
“This is a complex situation. If a straightforward solution existed, it would have been found already,” he said.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, launched in retaliation for the October attacks, has drawn both support and criticism.
While many Israelis view it as necessary to neutralize Hamas, others argue that the response has been too heavy-handed, resulting in significant civilian casualties.
Hamas, which opposes the existence of Israel, continues to fire rockets into Israeli territory, prompting counterattacks that have kept the region in a prolonged state of conflict.