US hostage families see Trump’s May trip to region as chance for loved ones’ return
Parents of American-Israeli captives pan Netanyahu’s handling of negotiations, fearing he’s using military pressure only to ensure his government’s survival
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
WASHINGTON — Families of American-Israeli hostages in Gaza said Wednesday that they see US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East as an opportunity to secure the release of their loved ones.
Trump is slated to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to May 16. The White House is not currently planning for the president to make a stop in Israel during what will be his first trip to the Middle East since his reelection.
“The vision that I have is that when he visits Saudi Arabia… he brings back five US citizens on his plane, including my son, and that he calls up and says, ‘Mr. Chen, Mrs. Chen. I got your kid. He’s on his way back home,” said Ruby Chen, whose son Itay, 19, was killed during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and whose body has been held in Gaza since.
Four other Americans are also being held: 21-year-old Edan Alexander — who is believed to be alive — and the bodies of 21-year-old Omer Neutra, 70-year-old Judith Weinstein Haggai and 73-year-old Gadi Haggai.
The parents of Alexander, Chen and Neutra held a briefing with reporters in Washington on Wednesday while they were in town for meetings with senior administration officials.
Trump helped secure the release of 33 hostages, including two Americans, through a hostage deal that was inked the day before he entered office in January. But that deal fell apart after its first phase, with Israel resuming the war on March 18 after Hamas refused to its demands to rework the terms of the agreement.
The US has backed Israel’s decision to resume fighting, but last week, Trump said he had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, in a sign that Washington was growing uneasy about Israel’s prosecution of the war.
Still, Gaza appears to have fallen on the Trump administration’s priority list, with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and other officials busy trying to strike deals to curb Iran’s nuclear program and end the war in Ukraine, among other issues.
Talks have been at an impasse for the past two months, with Israel only willing to agree to an interim deal that releases some of the hostages in exchange for another temporary ceasefire that allows it to resume fighting, while Hamas has said it is prepared to release all remaining 59 hostages at once in order to bring about a permanent end to the war.
Netanyahu has refused this exchange, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power and make another invasion possible.
But Ronen Neutra at the Wednesday briefing highlighted a poll released last week by the Midgam institute that found Netanyahu to be out of step with the majority of Israelis on this issue.
Asked whether they support or oppose a deal to return all the hostages in exchange for ending the war in Gaza, 68% of the 500 respondents backed the idea, compared to 22% who opposed it. Even among coalition voters, a plurality of 48% backed ending the war in exchange for the release of all hostages, the poll with a 4.4% margin of error found.
The American hostage families were very critical of Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s handling of the negotiations, while expressing appreciation for the support they’ve received from both the previous administration of Joe Biden and the current Trump administration.
Ruby Chen said the American families hold weekly calls with the office of the US hostage envoy, and Adi Alexander said he’s in daily contact with Witkoff.
By contrast, contact with the Israeli government is far less frequent, with Israeli officials telling the families that they’re concerned about their updates being leaked to the media, Chen said.
Chen panned what he characterized as the “cardinal sin” of a claim from Netanyahu that it is not currently possible to secure the release of all of the hostages at once, given that Hamas has insisted otherwise. Netanyahu’s spokesperson said earlier this month that such a deal was not possible because Hamas was demanding a permanent end to the war in exchange — something Israel won’t accept.
“I think it’s easy to say that Hamas won’t hold their side of the deal. If they don’t hold their side of the deal, then Israel can return to hostilities. But let’s give them the opportunity to release all the hostages and see if that happens or not, instead of saying that they won’t,” Orna Neutra said.
Adi Alexander said he wasn’t necessarily against the use of military pressure in order to coax Hamas to release the hostages, but he indicated his concern that the ongoing Israeli military campaign may be more motivated by the premier’s desire to ensure the survival of his government, given that Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse the government if he agrees to end the war before Hamas’s military capabilities have been fully dismantled.
“If the military pressure is for the political survival of the Israeli government, we don’t need that and we must stop it,” Alexander said.
“I believe that the president is a very tough person. He should be tough with enemies, but also with friends. And by friends, I’m talking about Israel,” he added.
Alexander said he was open to another interim deal, but asserted that it must be immediately followed by a final agreement that ends the war and frees the remaining hostages.
Both he and Chen reiterated their calls for the Trump administration to return to direct negotiations with Hamas.
Those talks were abandoned after three meetings the White House’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with Hamas officials in early March, after Israel fumed over the US envoy negotiating on its behalf without its knowledge.
Trump’s trip to the region has been seen as a potential watershed moment for negotiations with which his administration has been engaged regarding both the war in Gaza and Iran’s nuclear program.
“Your trip to Saudi Arabia is an opportunity to finish the hostilities in the region, drive toward peace, end the war and get the hostages out,” said Neutra.
The Times of Israel Community.