Sagui Dekel-Chen is one of two American citizens set for release as part of the first phase of a ceasefire-hostage deal which will see the release of 33 captives.
The deal came shortly before US President Donald Trump resumed his presidency in the White House. Trump warned Hamas against further delaying a deal - promising there would be “hell to pay” should the terror group continue holding hostages once he takes power.
Who is Sagui Dekel-Chen?
Sagui, now 36, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His wife gave birth to their third child shortly after he was abducted.
The baby born two months after the massacre was named Shachar, Hebrew for the first light that comes after darkness.
Professor Jonatan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui, noted in an opinion piece published in the Times on Thursday that Sagui was living without the knowledge that his children and wife survived the attack.
The invading terrorists wounded Sagui’s mother on October 7, and attempted to abduct her, but she was able to escape, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported. She was being abducted on a tractor when the IDF began firing at the terrorists.
Before leaving his home to fight off the invaders, Sagui locked his pregnant wife and two daughters in the family’s safe room.
“The girls lived through it, the murder of many of their little friends on the kibbutz, the murder of parents of their friends, and just the complete dislocation from their community,” Professor Dekel-Chen told the Times. “We lost 59 members of our kibbutz on that day, our homes were destroyed. And this small farming community was rendered uninhabitable. So they have had to bear that multi-level trauma.”
Professor Dekel-Chen has been heavily critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for being unable to retrieve his son.
"The one who sits at the top and who is responsible for what happened, primarily, on October 7 - that is our Prime Minister," he told the Kofman and Arieh program on 103FM in March. "To return the captives or whoever is possible, to return them alive, not to sacrifice them again."
The professor was also a member of a group of families who was critical of Netanyahu delivering a speech to the US Congress in July.