National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be meeting with the families of American hostages on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, DC, before leaving for his trip to Israel, NSC Communications Advisor John Kirby informed reporters during a briefing on Tuesday morning.
While Syria is certainly going to be at the top of Sullivan's agenda with the Israelis, Kirby said without question the most important thing Sullivan is going to want to talk about is how to get a hostage deal in place so the families can get their loved ones home and get the answers they deserve.
Kirby reiterated that Sullivan regularly engages with the American hostage families.
Tuesday's meeting will be the first for the families since the IDF last week confirmed that New York-born Omer Neutra was killed on October 7 and Hamas has held his body since.
A group representing the American families said in the meeting with Sullivan will be Adi and Yael Alexander, parents of New Jersey native Edan Alexander, who Hamas confirmed to be alive in a video released last weekend; Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, an IDF soldier whose body is also being held by Hamas; Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen; Iris Weinstein Haggai, daughter of Gad Haggai and Judy Weinstein; and Liz Hirsh Naftali, great-aunt of released American hostage Abigail Mor Edan.
While in DC, the families will also be meeting with "allies of President-elect Trump, and members of Congress and their staff," the group said in a statement.
'An opportunity to get a hostage deal'
"I am not in a position today where I can tell you that we have a deal that is on the brink of completion. That is not where we are," Kirby said. "But it is fair to say that we are working this extremely hard. We do think there's an opportunity here to get a hostage deal in place, to get these families reunited, to get a surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, but again, there's an awful lot of work that still has to be done. Hamas continues to be the obstacle to that outcome, but we're pressing on it really, really hard with that."
Hamas has got to be looking at the world today and realizing that the cavalry is not coming to rescue them, Kirby added, saying one would hope the recent developments in Syria reinforce their increasing isolation for them.
Kirby acknowledged that Sullivan is going to talk about the potential for a new hostage deal with the developments of the last few days in the background.
"It remains to be seen whether Hamas will move, but they absolutely ought to move because there is nobody coming to their assistance there," Kirby continued. "They can't rely on Hezbollah. They certainly can't rely on Iran. This is the time to make a deal."