Wrapping up talks in US, father of slain hostage pessimistic about chances for a deal

The father of one of the slain captives in Gaza wraps up several days of meetings with top Trump officials and others in Washington, pessimistic about the chances that the US will advance a hostage deal.

Reflecting on his trip, American-Israeli hostage Itay Chen’s father Ruby posts on X that he left “pessimistic about [the possibility for] a deal that the US will lead in the near future.”

He says Qatar is going all-in on “playing the victim” after Israel’s apparently botched strike in Doha and that the Gulf state has passed the mantle to the US to present a proposal to restart negotiations. Chen adds that Qatar is looking for others to take on the mediating role but will hold onto it if the US asks.

“In the US, [people] don’t understand why Trump isn’t tougher on Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] in public. The obvious conclusion is that even the great hope of the hostage families (Trump) isn’t really making an effort to force the sides to end the war and release our loved ones.” he writes.

Chen says that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is also Israel’s lead hostage negotiator, is mostly reacting to developments on the ground rather than initiating steps to secure the release of the hostages.

The hostage father appears to lament the lack of ground work in the US government to advance the issue, with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff leading the issue exclusively. Witkoff has come under fire for operating with a very small staff, even while being tasked with a host of major foreign policy issues.

“Currently, the administration is more preoccupied with domestic issues (leveraging Charlie Kirk’s murder to advance a domestic American agenda) and less with foreign affairs,” Chen adds.