Netanyahu ‘took week off’ from hostage crisis, captive’s father laments after meeting PM

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “took a week off” while in Washington from dealing with the hostage crisis, the father of American-Israeli hostage Itay Chen concludes after meeting with the premier last night.

Ruby Chen, one of the roughly two dozen hostage relatives who met with the prime minister, tells The Times of Israel that the families left the feeling with an overall feeling of disappointment.

“The expectation was that it would be a working session with Q&A, but it ended up being just an overview from the prime minister who did not respond directly to the questions of the families,” he says.

Chen pans Netanyahu for reportedly saying the hostages are suffering, but not dying — comments the premier hasn’t denied — and says yesterday’s announcement by the IDF that two more hostages have been killed in captivity proves that the premier is wrong.

“The hostages do not have time, and the fact that the prime minister took a week off, so to speak, of this topic is unacceptable,” Chen adds.

Chen noted that the American hostages’ families meeting meeting yesterday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was much more informative and he pointed out that the top Biden aid is also emotionally invested in their cause.