Hostage’s father says Netanyahu ignoring families in US, but Trump officials engaged

Hagai Angrest, the father of hostage Matan Angrest, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to engage with hostages’ family members who are in New York pushing for a deal to free those held in Gaza.

“He ignores us when we are outside his home in Jerusalem [and] he ignores us here,” Angrest tells Army Radio from the US. “He went to the [grave of] the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but all the places we are as well he has ignored us. That’s his choice. We are concerned with saving lives… not with ratings.”

In contrast, Angrest says, Trump administration officials have met with them to talk about efforts to reach a deal ending the war and bringing the hostages home.

“They are trying to do everything so this happens,” he says of a peace plan rolled out by US President Donald Trump in recent days. “They are working, they are doing everything; we believe in them, we are with them.”

As for the chances that a deal will be reached, Angrest is cautious, noting that they were promised an agreement the last time Netanyahu was in the US and got nothing.

“We are really hoping, but until we see progress, we don’t believe [it will happen],” he says.

He says hostages’ families will do everything in their power to force Netanyahu to agree to a deal, promising to be “the prime minister’s shadow” when he returns to Jerusalem.

“We’ll ramp up pressure. We will come back to Jerusalem in a big way, to more places in Jerusalem,” he says. “The prime minister knows that what we say, we do.”