(11 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 11 June 2024
1. UPSOUND (English) Yehuda Cohen, father of kidnapped soldier Nimrod Cohen:
"I’m asking Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to come and help us to save us from our horrible government who betrayed us. Our government betrayed us. Our government is responsible for the seventh of October and our government is running away from responsibility. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is only seeking for his personal security as Prime Minister to run away from his criminal accusations and he will put everybody, everybody at the risk.”
2. Families of hostages held in Gaza standing in front of the Kempinski hotel chanting "All of them now" and holding a banner reading in English "Hostage deal now"
3. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken walking near families of hostages
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Abby Onn, cousin of the Kalderon family:l
"Blinken came, he’s been here multiple times. He shook our hands, he spoke to us. He reassured us that they are doing everything possible. And our message to him was that we have to bring home every single hostage, that this is an issue of all of our family members, who are alive and who are not and we need every single one of them home. And he promised that that’s what he’s working on in his government and with the Israeli government.”
5. Blinken talking to journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Zahiro Shahar-Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder:
"We met with Secretary Blinken today, he gave us some reassurance that the Biden administration is doing its best to remediate the hostage situation as soon as possible. We did hear rumors about taking care of only the American hostages, but we got some reassurances that the administration wants them all out and they are striving to get them all out as soon as possible. In every time that Secretary Blinken comes here, it gives us some reassurance, it gives us some hope. The American administration is the grown up in this neighbourhood and we feel very, we appreciate their efforts very, very much and we call upon them to exert as much effort as possible to make both sides sign the deal as soon as possible.”
7. Security near Blinken
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Zahiro Shahar-Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder responding to the question on the U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing a cease-fire plan:
"We agree, we relate, we agree completely. We call upon Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire immediately, immediately, the ceasefire is good for the hostages, fighting is bad for them. It’s as simple as that."
9. Protesters chanting (English) "We trust you Blinken seal the deal"
10. Wide of protest outside hotel
STORYLINE:
Families of hostages held in Gaza protested on Tuesday outside a hotel in Tel Aviv which hosted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and briefly met with him.
The protesters called on Blinken to pressure the Israeli government to accept a cease-fire deal and bring back all of the hostages.
About 120 hostages remain in Gaza, with 43 pronounced dead, after about half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israeli troops have recovered the bodies of at least 16, according to the government.
Survivors include about 15 women, two children under 5 and two men in their 80s.
Blinken urged top Israeli officials on Monday to accept and implement a plan for postwar Gaza as he pushed for more international pressure on Hamas to agree to a cease-fire proposal newly endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
AP Video shot by Ami Bentov
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