The father of an Israeli-American hostage still being held by Hamas demanded a “negotiated deal with Satan” soon, as President Biden and Vice President Harris address the Situation Room with the US negotiating team.
“It’s absolutely clear that the only way for the hostages to come home alive is through some kind of negotiated deal with Satan,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui remains detained in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday morning. “Considering that the entire Israeli military and intelligence services, the high command has been saying for weeks, if not months, that the fighting needs to stop in order to get the hostages back, as many as possible alive, but the 101 hostages that remain.”
There are seven American citizens still being held hostage by Hamas, including four who are believed to be still alive and three whose deaths have already been confirmed, Dekel-Chen said.
“As for the message to the Israeli government, to my government, it is that the time for selling out, for perpetuating this fantasy of total victory over Hamas based on the sacrifice of our sons, daughters, grandparents who are held hostage in Gaza, is over,” Dekel-Chen said. “We have been at this for 11 months, hearing from our government that a little bit more military pressure and a little bit more military pressure is going to make Hamas come and ask for a deal in exchange for our hostages. Clearly, that has not happened. Yesterday, six bodies of hostages who were alive until last week were returned. A week before that, six other hostages were returned after their murder, months and months after their bodies were returned.” [Oct. 7].”
Biden, Harris to meet with U.S. hostage deal negotiating team as massive protests erupt in Israel
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, one of the hostages taken by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, speaks in front of the West Wing of the White House on April 9, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Biden and Harris, a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, plan to meet in the White House Situation Room on Monday morning along with the US hostage deal negotiating team following the killing of six hostages, including US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas on Saturday.
The White House said the purpose of the meeting is to discuss efforts to move toward an agreement that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.
On Sunday, crowds of protesters took to the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities after the bodies of hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel, fuelling frustration and anger toward the country’s leaders for failing to secure a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages. Israeli media reported that crowds of protesters were estimated to have reached 500,000 people in major Israeli cities.
A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza prompted closures and other disruptions across the country on Monday, including at its main international airport.
A day after the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip, a major strike led by the Israeli trade union organization Histadrut began on September 2, 2024, in protest against the government’s failure to end the conflict. (Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
“I think the Biden administration itself will say that it will have done enough when all the hostages are home. The seven Americans, of course, but all 101. The Biden administration has been extraordinarily supportive since October 7, as has Congress, wall to wall, which is quite extraordinary in these very polarized political times,” Dekel-Chen said.
Israel’s largest workers’ union plans mass strike after recovery of six hostages’ bodies
“In the end, the Biden administration or any American administration is not the one that has to sign this deal. The United States, along with Qatar and Egypt, are trying to broker a deal between Israel and a savage terrorist organization,” the father added. “To date, I think the Biden administration, every American family would agree, has done everything it can to get those two sides to yes. Clearly, it needs a little bit more, and that’s what we’re asking for, that last little push to convince, obviously, Hamas and the Israeli government to get to yes, to put an end to this madness and get our people back home. The Americans, the American citizens, and everybody else.”
Dekel-Chen said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition have no excuses for not reaching an agreement. However, Hamas has rejected the recent proposals.
Passengers wait for flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport during a nationwide strike on September 2, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Ameer Abed Rabbo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Dekel-Chen argued that the complete eradication of Hamas should not be a sticking point for a deal, because they are too weak to control the Gaza Strip any further.
“The entire military leadership and our intelligence services have said very clearly that at this point, Hamas has been so weakened as a military and government organization that it can no longer be used, except for internal political purposes, obviously, by our prime minister and his coalition; that can no longer be used as a reason, actually as an excuse, for not completing this agreement,” Dekel-Chen said. “The only resistance in Israel comes from the government itself, most of its ministers are not really qualified to make these kinds of decisions from a military and intelligence standpoint.”
Greg Wehner of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
