Father of US-Israeli hostage: Not true that American families pushing Biden to make separate deal

The father of a US-Israeli held hostage in Gaza says there is no truth to the report that the families of captives with American citizenship were petitioning the Biden administration to cut a unilateral deal with Hamas to free their loved ones.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui Dekel-Chen was kidnapped from Nir Oz on October 7, tells Channel 12 that the report is false.

Sagui Dekel-Chen, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was taken captive on October 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists (Courtesy screenshot)

“I am in continuous contact with the other American families and all levels of the US government,” he says. “There is nothing behind this report.”

“The report that the American families are demanding a separate US-Hamas is not correct,” he says. “I do not know where this report has come from.”

“I am inside the room [for these meetings] and anything else is speculation,” he says.

Dekel-Chen says that US officials are telling him that they are doing everything they can to advance the deal that is “on the table” and that they are waiting for the agreement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

NBC News had reported that the relatives met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and urged the consideration of a separate deal on Sunday, hours after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza last week, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

There are seven hostages with US citizenship; three of them have been declared dead.