Hostages families expressed concern on Sunday that negotiations could fall apart after the IDF targeted Hamas terror mastermind Mohammed Deif in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip.
“We need Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government to focus on getting this deal to the finish line,” Ruby Chen told JNS.
Chen’s son, U.S.-Israeli dual citizen Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, from Netanya, was killed on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists, who are holding his body in the Gaza Strip.
“We [families of Israeli-American hostages] had a call last week with [U.S. National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan, who claimed that the gaps in negotiations can be resolved and we need the prime minister to do whatever he can to keep his eyes on the ball,” Chen said.
“We have a window of opportunity that we can’t lose. If we do, nobody knows when it will be back,” he continued.
Mediators are trying to revive the phased ceasefire outline President Joe Biden presented in May, which calls in its first stage for a “full and complete” six-week truce during which dozens of Israeli hostages—women, the elderly and the sick—would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists.
Netanyahu reiterated at a press briefing on Saturday night his four basic conditions for a hostage deal.
“First, I insist on our right to continue the war until all of our objectives have been achieved,” he said. “Second, I insist on preventing the smuggling of weapons to Hamas via Egypt. This requires our continued control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing.
“Third, I insist on preventing the return of armed terrorists and war materiel to the northern Gaza Strip,” he continued. “Fourth, I insist that we return as many living hostages as possible in the first stage of the outline.”
The premier vowed not to allow Hamas to budge from the original Biden proposal. “Hamas has sought to add 29 changes to the outline. I told both the negotiating team and the Americans: Not even one change,” he said.
Congressmen and senators
Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on July 24, and families of dual American-Israeli hostages are pushing to organize a meeting before then.
“We have not received any response from the Prime Minister’s Office. We would like the prime minister to meet with congressmen and senators who represent us. It would be a bipartisan meeting bringing attention to this bipartisan issue,” Chen told JNS.
“Any distraction must be put on hold. This is the most important issue on this government’s agenda. Let us not forget that we have 120 hostages in Gaza for over nine months now,” he added.
The strike targeting Deif and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, could throw a wrench in the negotiations. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh reportedly told international mediators of the “decision to halt negotiations due to the occupation’s [Israel’s] lack of seriousness, continued policy of procrastination and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres against unarmed civilians.”
Hamas later denied the report in an official statement.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum told JNS on Sunday that “in light of recent events in the Gaza Strip, the families of the hostages remind Prime Minister Netanyahu that there can be no victory until all 120 hostages are returned home.”
“The proposed deal is in its final stages. Now is the time to instruct the negotiating teams to reach agreements and bring everyone home—the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for burial in their homeland. We have been waiting for them for 282 days,” added the statement.
“Time is of the essence; there’s not a moment more to lose,” it continued.
Michael Levy, whose brother Or was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7 and is still being held by Hamas in Gaza, expressed urgency to JNS.
“I’m trying not to let myself carried away with [the negotiation process], because it won’t be the first or second time that we could be disappointed,” he said.
Or, 33, the father of a toddler son, arrived at the music festival with his wife, Einav, at 6:20 a.m., minutes before the invasion began. They escaped to a nearby bomb shelter that was later ambushed by Hamas terrorists. Einav was murdered and Or was taken hostage.
“I try to keep the pressure on at all times. Until there is concrete progress, I don’t see a reason to stop. We are not going to sit and wait and hope for the best, we have to make sure the world keeps pressuring Hamas and Qatar to release the hostages,” said Levy.
Thousands took part in a four-day solidarity march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this week to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages. The event culminated on Saturday night with rallies all over Israel, including in the capital as well as Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square,” where former captives Amit Soussana, Andrey Kozlov and Gabriela Leimberg addressed the crowd.
“I want to make sure that people don’t forget the hostages,” Levy told JNS. “The truth is that the hostages are real people with families, hopes and dreams.
“In Or’s case, he has a three-year-old who celebrated a birthday without parents and who wishes to see his father again. There is nothing more important than that,” he said.