Trump admin will bring new thinking to Israel-Hamas hostage deal, murdered captives father says
Relatives of hostages, whom Hamas holds in Gaza, came out of a Wednesday afternoon Oval Office meeting with U.S President Joe Biden hopeful about future progress amid the lame duck period and transition of White House administrations.JNS asked the family members if Biden had committed to do anything differently in the final two months of his tenure to secure a deal that would release the hostages.“The fact that there is a new administration that will put new thoughts on the table, new thinking, and I think that–by itself—is a welcome progress,” Ruby Chen, the father of the Israeli-American hostage Itay Chen, whose body is being held in Gaza, told JNS.“We have been in a stalemate for a couple of months on the hostage deal.”Jake Sullivan, the U.S.
national security advisor, said earlier in the day that the Biden administration “sent a signal” to Trump’s team that it is prepared to coordinate on a hostage deal.There has been no agreement in place since Hamas broke a ceasefire following last November’s agreement, which resulted in the release of 50 Israeli hostages over a four-day pause in fighting.Some 101 hostages remain in Gaza, 97 of whom were abducted on Oct.
7.It isn’t known publicly how many are alive.Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, told reporters that family members “came away absolutely understanding that with that same energy and investment, President Biden and his team will continue working to gain the release” of all the hostages “every moment up until Jan.
20,” the final day of Biden’s presidency.Dekel-Chen said that the families are also calling on the incoming Trump administration “to use these next two months not to learn necessarily about the hostages, but to take action immediately with their counterparts in the national security structure of the United States government to make it happen now—before Inauguration Day.”The families met Wednesday morning with the staff ...