The Israeli government said its new ground offensive in Gaza is meant to raise pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. But family members of some of the hostages are condemning the offensive as fundamentally at odds with that goal, warning that escalating the conflict could have potentially fatal consequences for living hostages and make it more difficult to secure the return of the deceased ones.
Israel’s announcement of the offensive over the weekend was “the worst news that we could have received,” Yotam Cohen, the brother of Nimrod Cohen, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 and is believed to still be alive, told Foreign Policy on May 19.
The Israeli government said its new ground offensive in Gaza is meant to raise pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. But family members of some of the hostages are condemning the offensive as fundamentally at odds with that goal, warning that escalating the conflict could have potentially fatal consequences for living hostages and make it more difficult to secure the return of the deceased ones.
Israel’s announcement of the offensive over the weekend was “the worst news that we could have received,” Yotam Cohen, the brother of Nimrod Cohen, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 and is believed to still be alive, told Foreign Policy on May 19.
Cohen said the offensive—dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots—is “everything we’ve been concerned about” and “warned against” because it “can endanger the lives of the hostages.” He’s worried that the new operation will prolong the war and prevent the release of the remaining 58 hostages, roughly 20 of whom are thought to still be alive.
After intense Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed hundreds of Palestinians over the course of several days, the IDF said on May 18 that troops had begun “extensive ground operations” throughout Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 19 that Israel is moving to take control of “all of Gaza.” He has also ordered a limited amount of aid to be let into Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade. The Israeli leader signaled that the decision to partially lift the blockade was in response to pressure from Western allies such as the United States.
Ruby Chen, the father of American Israeli IDF soldier Itay Chen, told FP that he’s very concerned the new offensive will also make it more difficult to retrieve the remains of deceased hostages like his son.
Itay was initially thought to be held alive by Hamas, but the IDF reported in March that he’d been killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and that his body was taken into Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed that it has the Israeli soldier’s remains.
Chen, who decried Hamas’s actions as the “lowest form of psychological warfare that you can think of,” recently urged the United Nations Security Council to enforce a resolution that obligates parties in armed conflicts to return the remains of missing persons. “We just need to have closure,” Chen said. “We are all children of God.”
But Chen also sees the Israeli government as part of the problem. Netanyahu “doesn’t know how to finish,” Chen said. The United States has given Netanyahu a “blank check” throughout the war to “do whatever he wants,” Chen said, but the Israeli leader has been “unsuccessful.” Regarding the new ground offensive in Gaza, Chen said it’s hard to understand why Netanyahu believes “using the same tactic will get a different outcome.”
Critics of Netanyahu have accused him of continuing the war in order to appease far-right members of his fragile coalition government and thus ensure his own political survival.
Cohen said he and his family members were among the first relatives of hostages to “publicly state that we think that the government is prolonging the war for political or personal reasons,” adding that they’re “seeing more and more evidence there is no reason to continue the war” as time goes on.
As they keep pushing for the release of the remaining hostages, both Cohen and Chen said that the Trump administration has been far more communicative and helpful than the Israeli government.
Chen applauded the Trump administration—and particularly U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, whom he said has a “big Jewish heart”—for recently securing the release of American Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.
“I have to say, as an Israeli citizen, we’re getting much more updates and much more help from the American administration than what we’re getting from the Israeli government. Even though I’m an Israeli citizen, the amount of support, help, and cooperation we’ve been getting from the U.S. administration, from this current administration, is astounding,” Cohen said. “I feel betrayed by my country, which is a terrible feeling.”
But recent pressure put on the Israeli government by the United States and European countries is a “positive” development, Cohen added, and “hopefully it will prevent or at least halt the ground campaign inside Gaza.”
The leaders of France, Canada, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement on May 19 condemning the Israeli government for ramping up the war in Gaza.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” the statement read. It criticized Netanyahu’s announcement that a “basic quantity” of food would be let in as “wholly inadequate.”
“We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions,” the statement warned. “If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
