Father of American-Israeli hostage calls on Trump to negotiate directly with Hamas

WASHINGTON — The father of an American-Israeli hostage calls on US President Donald Trump to negotiate directly with Hamas in order to secure the release of his son and the three other American hostages.

“The previous administration told the American families the way to release our family members would be via Israel as a proxy. Though the plan did not work, the Biden administration kept doubling down on the same plan despite not getting the expected results,” slain hostage Itay Chen’s father Ruby writes in an op-ed for Fox News.

“As such, why is President Trump not directly negotiating for the release of US citizens in Gaza, but instead using third parties such as Qatar to negotiate for the release of US citizens?” Chen adds.

Chen joins the father of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander who issued a similar call for the Trump administration’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler to renew his direct talks with Hamas in an interview with The Times of Israel last week.

Those talks were abandoned after three meetings Boehler held in early March, after Israel fumed over the US envoy negotiating on its behalf without its knowledge.

The US has since returned to the previous track of negotiations, which has seen Israel and the US negotiate with Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

In recent days, though, Israeli officials have been accusing Qatar of sabotaging the talks — a claim that officials from both Egypt and Qatar have told The Times of Israel is aimed at deflecting blame from Israel over the impasse, which they think is the result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unreasonable demands.

“In January, we saw what the president’s direct involvement can do to release hostages. The US has a legal obligation to get its citizens out of harm’s way and if the proxy is not capable of releasing them, then the US must find a different path to release its citizens,” Chen writes.

The hostage father thanks Trump for his role in the release of 33 captives in January, “but the truth is, the first 100 days of this administration have not delivered what the president himself demanded — releasing all of the US hostages in Gaza and sending a clear message that holding US hostages anywhere is a liability, not an asset.”