Hostage families meet with PM, warn phased-release deal will leave loved ones behind
Relatives of Hamas captives in Gaza urge Netanyahu to establish fixed deadline for release of everyone, rather than only 33 to be freed in first phase

Family members of Israelis held hostage in Gaza left a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday distraught, and warned in a press conference that, without a deadline fixed in advance for the release of all the hostages, some of the captives may be left behind after the first stage of a multi-stage agreement is implemented.
The meeting came at the same time as reports that a deal with the Hamas terror group to secure the hostages’ release — in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of more than a thousand Palestinian security prisoners — could be closed within days or even hours.
According to reports, the three-phase agreement would begin with the gradual release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, while the later phases would see negotiations with Hamas over a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza — which Netanyahu has in the past vowed not to carry out until the terror group can no longer govern.
“From what we understand, at this stage, only the first phase of the deal has been fully agreed upon,” said Gil Dickmann — whose cousin Carmel Gat was murdered in Hamas captivity — at a press conference after the meeting.
“We are deeply concerned that 465 days after October 7, there is still no agreement guaranteeing the return of all hostages. We don’t want to leave anyone behind, or hear about more hostages being murdered in captivity, like Carmel,” he said.
According to a Channel 12 report on the meeting, Netanyahu told the family members that a deal was “days or hours” from being finalized. “We are waiting for Hamas’s [positive] response and then it will be possible to start [implementation] immediately,” he was quoted as saying.

One of the relatives reportedly stressed that the families are deeply worried that the deal would collapse after the first phase. Netanyahu said in response that talks on phase two would commence on the 16th day of phase one, “and we won’t leave Gaza until all the hostages are returned.”
Asked why Israel would wait until the 16th day to start the phase two talks, Netanyahu reportedly said, “The negotiations now are about all [of the hostages], but the deal will be in phases. Ultimately, we’re dealing with a murderous terror group. You have to start with something in order to get the rest moving. I will do everything to bring everybody home — the living and the dead.”
The families also asked him why the deal could not have been done months ago, and he reportedly responded that Israel now has “an envelope” of support from incoming US president Donald Trump.
He also reportedly spoke of the deal providing for “a protracted ceasefire” in return for all the hostages, rather than an end to the war.
After the meeting, and prior to the participants’ press conference, several other family members of hostages spoke, expressing opposition to the deal on the basis that it may not bring everyone home, and said they were excluded from the meeting with Netanyahu, though it was not immediately clear whom they were accusing of not allowing them in.

“We’re in a situation where we’re receiving 33 hostages, and as for the rest of them, we don’t know their fate,” said Eli Shtivi, whose son Idan Shtivi was killed on October 7, with Hamas still holding his body. “We’re going to abandon 70 hostages. I feel abandoned, all the families [whose hostage loved ones] won’t return in this stage feel abandoned,” he said.
Chaim Haiman, whose daughter Inbar Haiman was murdered in Hamas captivity, rejected the idea that those in the meeting with Netanyahu represented him, and asserted that they “don’t represent the majority of the families,” adding, “Here, some hostages are worth more and some hostages are worth less.”
Netanyahu also met Tuesday evening with representatives of the hawkish Gvura Forum of families of slain soldiers. He was originally set to meet them earlier in the day, but the meeting was delayed while the forum weighed canceling it because of their opposition to the deal, Channel 12 reported.
According to the report, Netanyahu told the bereaved family members that Hamas had not yet responded to the deal. If it went ahead, he reportedly said, the ceasefire would be reexamined every day, and any breach by the terror group would be met by a powerful Israeli response, the likes of which Hamas has never seen before. He also added that Trump’s reentry to the White House on January 20 will change the rules of the game.

It is believed that 94 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.