From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Families express optimism on hostage deal after meeting Netanyahu, Biden
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
WASHINGTON — The families of the American hostages being held in Gaza say after exiting a meeting with US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House that they haven’t been this optimistic about the chances for a hostage release and ceasefire agreement since the last time Israel and Hamas reached a deal in late November.
“After asking a series of difficult questions and getting answers to all of them… we feel probably more optimistic than we have since the first round of releases in late November,” hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen’s father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, tells reporters outside the White House, adding that their meeting was “productive and honest.”
Dekel-Chen says the combination of Israel’s military pressure, the diplomatic pressure that countries abroad have been placing on Hamas and the efforts of the US and Israel, which he was briefed on in today’s meeting, are what has led him to be so optimistic.
“We got absolute commitments from the Biden administration and from Prime Minister Netanyahu that they understand the urgency of this moment now to waste no time in completing this deal as it currently stands with as little change as humanly possible,” he continues, adding that “there is absolutely no daylight between the position of the US government, the US Congress and the Israeli leadership.”
“We were also very happy to hear from the president that Hamas now understands that the ball is in its court. World pressure is such that it has nowhere to hide anymore,” Dekel-Chen says.
Speaking to The Times of Israel, hostage Omer Neutra’s father Ronen agrees that he had been skeptical of Netanyahu’s commitment to a deal, given that his previous statements about the hostages contained very little information regarding the proposal on the table and instead focused only on the military efforts Israel was making.
“In the meeting, we did hear from him that the deal must advance and that they’re working on it. Therefore, we’re now more optimistic,” he says.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s father Jon says, “We currently have a rare moment where the current president of the United States and anybody who might become president of the United States — both Vice President Harris and Donald Trump — are all aligned in saying this deal must get done now.”
“Anybody on any side who makes the mistaken political calculus that there’s benefit in waiting will find out that that logic is wrong,” Polin says sternly.
