Hostage’s father: Biden gave us hope that ‘something will happen in coming days’

WASHINGTON — Hostage Itay Chen’s father Ruby tells reporters walking out of the White House that US President Joe Biden gave the American hostage families hope that “something will happen in the coming days.”

The families say Israel will submit an updated deal proposal to Hamas in the coming days.

“As a result of the conversations between the leaders and their staffs [before we met them], they are working as we speak to put together an updated Israeli proposal that will be sent back to Hamas. It is all within the framework of that three-stage proposed deal that the President announced at the end of May,” Sagui Dekel-Chen’s father Jonathan Dekel-Chen tells The Times of Israel.

He says he is “guardedly optimistic” about Netanyahu’s ability to agree to a deal moving forward, after being more skeptical in the past.

“I think the prime minister understands that not only are the eyes of the world on Hamas right now, they’re also on him. Because so many different sides — both within Israel, but also outside of Israel — are saying the conditions are there,” he says.

“There might need to be some minor adjustments, but additional time before the hostages come home is a potential death sentence for those who are still alive, and makes it much harder to recover the bodies of those that have already been murdered,” he says.

“They’ve also committed to try and narrow to the degree that it’s possible — obviously, you can’t force Hamas to do this — but to flatten those cycles of time between the responses on both sides,” Dekel-Chen adds.