No matter who wins the November 5 US presidential race, the most pressing issue right now – at least from Israel’s point of view – is bringing home the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas.
Suppose there is one thing outgoing US President Joe Biden can achieve before he hands over the keys to the White House in January – securing the release of the hostages, some of whom are American citizens.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, more than half of the hostages are still living in the Gaza Strip. Besides the 97 who were taken captive alive and dead on October 7, 2023, Hamas is also believed to be holding two civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
A dozen people with American citizenship were abducted to Gaza. Two were freed on October 20, while two others were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a ceasefire in November last year.
The IDF confirmed on September 1 that six hostages – including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli-American citizen whose family lives in Jerusalem – had been murdered in captivity.
Four American hostages still alive
The American Jewish Committee has named four hostages with US citizenship still believed to be alive in Gaza: Edan Alexander, 20; Omer Neutra, 23; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36; and Keith Siegel, 65.
At a rally by the families at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Orna Neutra, the mother of Omer Neutra, who was born and raised in New York and recently marked his 23rd birthday in captivity, issued a heartfelt plea for her son and all the hostages:
“When I told President Biden about Omer’s decision to move to Israel and join the IDF, he told me that sometimes he felt we raise our kids too well. I have revisited his words many times over this year... I refuse to accept them, but I do question what happened to our humanity [and] to the moral compass of the world.
“In what world does a 23-year-old celebrate his birthday in a terror dungeon? Or, for that matter, 101 individuals – children, women, elderly?”
The US State Department signaled on Monday that Hamas had rejected an Egyptian proposal for a short-term ceasefire and hostage release deal during talks in Cairo.
According to a readout of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Blinken “noted that Hamas has once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages to secure a ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza.”
Nevertheless, a diplomat involved in the negotiations stressed that all options were still on the table and that the sides were waiting for the results of the US presidential elections to determine how to respond.
Channel 12 reported on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was examining a new proposal under which those holding the hostages would be offered safe passage and “several million dollars” for the release of each hostage.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has ratcheted up its pressure on Netanyahu after it was revealed this week that Eli Feldstein, an aide to the prime minister, and four others connected to the security establishment had been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified security documents to media outlets abroad in an attempt to sabotage a hostage deal.
At the New York City Marathon on Sunday, runners dedicated their run to the hostages and wore shirts bearing the faces of hostages Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher, Evyatar David, Ohad Yahalomi, and Edan Alexander, all accomplished athletes who ran marathons.
Yoni Levy, Naama Levy’s father, said: “When I see Naama’s picture in the huge marathon, I feel her absence so deeply.”
The Jerusalem Post has been running photographs of the hostages on the top left of its front page every day for the past year under the headline, “Bring them home.” Time is running out.
We urge the outgoing administration to do all it can to expedite a deal before the new president takes over. It would be both Biden’s legacy and his parting gift – to Israel, the United States, and the world.