When the families of the eight American-Israeli hostages meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday, Ruby Chen wants to hear that there’s a deal.Chen learned in March that his 19-year-old son Itay was killed on October 7, and his body remains in Gaza.Tuesday’s meeting will be Sullivan’s ninth with the families since October 7.
"We've had enough hearing about progress in the negotiations, I don't want to hear again there's progress in the negotiations," Chen told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday after the Israel on 5th Parade. "My expectation from this administration, after 240 days, is to get its citizens out of harm's way."
The ceasefire guidelines that President Joe Biden announced on Friday were approved by the Israeli war cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Chen.
"Now, we need the Biden administration to do what it has been during the last 24, 48 hours - calling up its allies in the Middle East to get Hamas to the table and work out the details," Chen added.
Waiting for clarity
Chen told the Post there's still a lot of missing parts to the proposal, and he doesn’t understand the timeline for when Itay’s body would be released.According to the proposal, any remains of hostages would be released in the third and final phase of the agreement. If agreed to, the first phase of the ceasefire is expected to take six weeks, though Biden said it’s possible to go longer if needed. Women, children, elderly, and wounded hostages would be released during this first phase.The terms of the second phase would be negotiated during the first phase. All remaining hostages, including soldiers, would be released during the second phase.What’s unclear from Biden’s Friday remarks is how long the second phase would last and at what point during the third phase the remains would be released.“My expectation again, as a US citizen, is that the administration would be able to articulate how and when [Itay] is coming out,” Chen said.