News / Palestine / Foreign Policy

Father of Israeli captive urges Trump to push Netanyahu to end Gaza onslaught

Sunday, 01 June 2025 9:11 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 June 2025 9:11 AM ]

Israeli military vehicles stand near the border between the Israeli-occupied territories and the Gaza Strip on May 20, 2025. (Photo by Reuters)

The father of an Israeli captive held by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip has called upon US President Donald Trump to pressure Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the regime’s genocidal war on the besieged coastal territory.

“Please force Netanyahu to end the war. This is the only way I can see my son alive,” the Israeli public broadcaster KAN quoted Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, is believed to be among the captives held by Hamas.

The remarks come amid revelations that Israeli military offensives across the Gaza Strip have put the lives of at least 54 captives held by Palestinian resistance groups in danger, leading to the death of 20 individuals.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz revealed that over 601 days of the Gaza war, commencing in early October 2023, the actions of the Israeli army, which included airstrikes, resulted in the deaths of captives either directly or indirectly as a consequence of military offensives in proximity to their locations.

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Haaretz asserted that although numerous strikes were averted due to concerns regarding the proximity of captives, the Israeli military does permit strikes within several hundred meters.

Resistance groups in the Gaza Strip are reportedly holding 58 captives, including 57 of the 251 caught by Hamas-led resistance fighters on October 7, 2023.

They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israeli military. Of them, 20 are believed to be alive.

Hamas released 30 captives — including 20 Israeli settlers, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight captives killed in the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of Gaza during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional captive, Alexander, earlier this month.

The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement also freed 105 Israeli settlers during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four captives were released before that in the early weeks of the war.

In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 Palestinian abductees as well as Gazans detained during the ongoing genocidal war against the besieged territory.

Eight Israeli captives have been found by the regime’s troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.

The body of another Israeli soldier killed in 2014, identified as Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 58 captives.

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