The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has left many Israeli families in despair, grappling with the uncertainty and trauma of having loved ones taken hostage. Of the 240 people who were taken hostage, 116 remain in Hamas captivity, including Nimrod Cohen, 19, a soldier who was abducted from Nahal Oz. Nimrod’s older brother Yotam Cohen spoke to The Media Line about his efforts over the past nine months to bring Nimrod back home.
TML: What happened to you on October 7?
Yotam Cohen: It was the morning of October 7. My family and I were all woken up by the sirens. My sister, my two parents, and I went to the shelter in our house’s basement. I think it was about 8 a.m. that I saw the first picture that Hamas posted on Telegram. I saw a picture of a burning tank and recognized it: this was my brother’s. It was only later, around noon, that my father saw the actual video, where you can see my brother being kidnapped.
I remember that around 8 a.m. I had a bad feeling because he wasn’t responding to our calls. I felt something might be wrong and sensed the ground disappearing under my feet. At this point, I knew that everything was going to change. I think that the main feeling was the understanding that he was either kidnapped or dead. So, the best-case scenario was that he had been kidnapped, and the worst-case scenario was that he could be dead. In these terms, weirdly, we are lucky that my brother was kidnapped.
TML: When did you last talk to him?
Yotam Cohen: My parents spoke to him on October 6, but I hadn’t spoken to him in a week, since we usually talk on Friday night. This time, we decided to speak on the morning of October 7.
TML: Can you tell me more about Nimrod and your family?
Yotam Cohen: We live in Rehovot, a small city near Tel Aviv. When he was kidnapped, he was less than a year in the army since he was enlisted in November 2022. Nimrod is a very shy boy, and he’s a very simple man. Before October 7, his main concerns were playing Fortnite with his friends, streaming it on Discord, and going to parties. He was like every other regular 19-year-old guy. There’s really nothing that special about him, just like there was nothing that special about us. We were just another family with two brothers, one sister, and our parents.
When we were in high school, we liked to travel a lot and go hiking in Israel. My brother, my sister, and I were in a special youth movement, and we are also youth leaders, so Nimrod had the chance to guide kids throughout the forest of Israel. He was on army duty in his tank when he was taken, so the IDF also found his Rubik’s cube in there, which they brought back to us. He really likes puzzles. You can see the cube got a bit scorched since his tank was burning.
TML: Do we know what happened to his colleagues who were in the tank with him?
Yotam Cohen: There was a crew of four in the tank. The driver was the first one to be murdered as a result of an explosive charge. The loader was also murdered by the terrorists after being captured. The commander, who was also an American citizen, is unknown to me what happened to him, but I think he is still considered alive. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting many signs that Nimrod is still alive.
TML: Did the rescued or freed hostages bring back any information about Nimrod?
Yotam Cohen: We have information from hostages who came back from the first hostage deal. They said that despite his time in captivity, his condition was fairly good. We have nothing to [make us] believe anything has changed regarding his condition since, so we believe that he is alive and healthy, and it should be just a matter of time until we see each other again. Thank God my brother doesn’t have any medical condition.
One of the hostages that came back after the negotiations, Nili Margalit, made a list of the other hostages that required medication, and she said that one boy needed a cream for his tattoos that he had made recently. My mom then told me that Nimrod had done a tattoo not too long before the terror attacks. Then we spoke to Nili, and we confirmed that this boy was indeed Nimrod. It’s funny in a way because it shows just how simple he is.
TML: How does it feel to be a regular guy in a regular family who suddenly gets thrown into the spotlight because of October 7?
Yotam Cohen: All of the families are also just like us, and October 7 changed everything for everyone. Many of the victims and the hostages are like us. Some were serving [on] military duty that day, and others were meeting with their families for the holidays, nothing different than thousands of families. And this is the situation that we have to navigate and do what is necessary to bring them back home. To be honest, I hate having to do interviews and talk to journalists, no offense—this routine of jumping from interview to interview. To meet with politicians around the world, I really dislike this. Just like other families, my life stopped. I can’t work or have fun. The only thing that I can do is this, and you can’t concentrate on anything else. It’s exhausting. The only thing I can say is that I hope this will end soon. I feel like I have a debt to my younger brother. I used to protect him and take care of him. Now, I must do everything I can to help bring him back, even though I don’t like it, and it makes me feel uncomfortable. This includes all this routine I mentioned to you, but it also includes going to protests and saying things that not everyone likes to hear.
TML: What would you like to say, and who doesn’t like to hear it?
Yotam Cohen: For the first months, we were all in a big shock. Israel had just lived through a huge trauma, and the IDF had just started operations in Gaza. After two months, there was the first hostage deal, and about half of the hostages came back in a fairly good situation, so it was good news for all the families. But after this, it was between January and February that I felt there was something stuck. Nothing was advancing in the negotiation, but in terms of Hamas’ conditions, nothing really changed. What Hamas demanded in January, more than half a year ago, is the same as it is demanding now, despite what certain people like to say: the IDF’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the rehabilitation of the strip, the entry of humanitarian aid, and the release of selected Palestinian prisoners. The only thing you can negotiate is how many prisoners or how the penalty limit of the prisoners is to be potentially released.
Hostage lives are not a priority for the government, Cohen claims
These are terms that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu will not accept, and you can see many of his allies and surrounding media saying absurd things, like suppositions of unrealistic requests by Hamas, just because they’re entirely unwilling to bring them back. For example, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli national security advisor, had a conversation with family members, and the bottom line of the talk was that a hostage deal is not in the government’s political interest and that it will only do it when it’s supported politically.
By now, we understand that my brother’s life isn’t the priority of these political leaders. By this point, there is no trust between my family and this government. They got us into this situation in the first place, and they’re just doing everything they can to remain in power. They know that the issue of the hostages will break the coalition supporting the government, and if there is another election, they will lose many seats.