My husband, Omri Miran, has been held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for over 18 months. He was kidnapped before the eyes of our two young daughters on October 7, 2023, after armed terrorists broke into our home and held our family at gunpoint for hours. We have strong indications that he is alive, and at 48, he is considered the oldest living hostage still in Gaza.
As a proud Zionist and patriotic Israeli, what I’m about to say is painful – but it must be said: Today, I have more faith in the US administration, led by President Donald Trump, to bring my daughters’ father home than I do in my own government. Trump and his special envoy, Ambassador Steve Witkoff, have become a source of hope for our family and for the families of the 59 remaining hostages. I cannot say the same for the man leading Israel’s negotiations.
Trump and Witkoff earned our trust by playing a crucial role in securing the January 2025 ceasefire and hostage release deal, which brought back 33 hostages – 25 of them alive. That agreement was meant to be only the first phase. The second phase – intended to secure the release of all remaining hostages, including Omri – was supposed to begin within 16 days.
But in mid-February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suddenly restructured Israel’s negotiation team. He removed the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies – the same people who helped secure both the January deal and the earlier November 2023 deal that freed 100 hostages – and replaced them with his closest confidant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
Dermer is a longtime political loyalist with no relevant background in complex crisis negotiations, no experience dealing with non-state actors like Hamas, and no fluency in Arabic or deep expertise in the Palestinian arena.
As a wife desperate to bring her husband home, I tried to stay optimistic. Dermer, I told myself, has the prime minister’s full trust – maybe that would speed things up. My hope was to see Omri return by Passover, which this year coincided with his 48th birthday.
But that hope faded quickly. Unlike Witkoff, who engages directly and pragmatically with all sides and avoids political games, Dermer’s approach has felt cautious, rigid, and politically calculated. His leadership over the past two months has coincided with stagnation and missed opportunities. Many families now believe that political considerations – not humanitarian urgency or legitimate security concerns – may be driving Israel’s approach.
This fear was reinforced during a recent meeting Dermer held with two hostage families, where he referred to a “timeframe of three to six months” for securing their release – a gut-punching statement that betrays how detached he is from the reality underground.
Time is running out for the remaining hostages
Forty-one hostages kidnapped alive on October 7 have already died in captivity. With the war now fully resumed, and with Netanyahu committing to continue it at the expense of seeking a comprehensive deal to release all hostages – even if it means ending the war – how many more will survive another four to six months of hunger, suffocation, and bombings?
None of this excuses the main culprit and perpetrator, Hamas. They are a genocidal terror group, fully responsible for the suffering of both Israelis and Gazans since October 7. But that does not absolve Israel of the need to lead this fight with competence and urgency.
Dermer, a career politician, simply lacks the background and temperament for hostage diplomacy. His leadership has turned the process bureaucratic and slow, disconnected from the desperation of those of us waiting every minute for a phone call, a sign, a miracle.
He seems more focused on how each move affects the prime minister’s political standing than on the hostages’ fate. It feels, to many of us, like politics has taken priority over people.
Yet, despite our growing frustration, our faith in Trump and Witkoff remains strong. They understand what this moment demands: moral clarity, strategic focus, and a sense of life-or-death urgency.
If they are reading this, my one plea is this: Take matters into your own hands. Do not allow any other party to delay, water down, or politicize the mission. You proved once that you can get it done. We believe you can do it again.
The writer was born in Sderot. A survivor of the October 7 massacre, she is the wife of hostage Omri Miran, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz in front of her and their two daughters, Roni and Alma. Before October 7, she worked as the director of the pre-academic preparatory programs at Sapir College.