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 of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), Trump’s nominee for secretary of state and a stalwart supporter of Israel. Dekel-Chen said they hope for a direct meeting with Rubio and other members of Trump’s future cabinet, who operate in the national security structure. (The nominees must be confirmed by Senate votes.)
Dekel-Chen said that the hostage families have been urging all of the nominees, as well as Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, “to work together now on a nonpartisan basis to get the hostages home, to create a ceasefire in Gaza and to end the madness.”
Ruby Chen confirmed what had been reported—Biden and Trump talked about the hostages in their Oval Office meeting on Wednesday.
“We hope that that is a signal that it stays a priority for the incoming administration, as well, to get this done,” Chen said.
Liz Naftali, great-aunt of released hostage Abigail Mor and a Democratic Party donor with ties to Biden, said that the families came away from the meeting with a sense of bipartisan support.
“That is a message to both Hamas and to Israel and to all the parties and to world leaders that they are united in something,” Naftali said of Biden and Trump. “We have seen there’s been a lot that hasn’t been united, but they are united in the release of these hostages.”
In a call to action on Monday morning at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Washington, Dekel-Chen said “upward pressure” needed to be applied from the U.S. Jewish grassroots on mainstream Jewish American organizations, which he felt were hesitant to criticize the Israeli government’s handling of the hostage situation.
Asked by JNS on Wednesday whether there was any initial reaction, Dekel-Chen said that regional leaders of the Federation “absolutely confirmed that they understand that they need to put upward pressure on the leaderships of those organizations—some of them, not all—to use their voice on behalf of the hostages, whatever that means, even if it is giving hard news to friends in Israel.”
In addition to Dekel-Chen, Chen and Naftali, Biden also welcomed Andrea Weinstein, Adi and Yael Alexander and Ronen Neutra to the Oval Office.
Weinstein is the sister of Judy Weinstein and sister-in-law of Gadi Haggai, both of whom were murdered on Oct. 7 and whose bodies remain in Gaza. Judy Weinstein was an U.S., Canadian and Israeli citizen.
Adi and Yael Alexander are the parents of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American held in Gaza who is presumed to be alive. Neutra is father of Israeli-American Omer Neutra, a hostage who is also presumed to be alive.
