“Families of American Hostages Say a Deal ‘Has to Happen Right Now’”, The New York Times

Seven Americans remain held in Gaza by Hamas. An eighth American, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was among the hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday.

By Troy Closson, Campbell Robertson and Jay Root, Sept. 2, 2024

The families of several American hostages criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday as not moving urgently enough to secure a hostage release deal, after six hostages were found dead in southern Gaza over the weekend.

“It has to happen right now,” said Adi Alexander, whose 20-year-old son Edan has been held captive for nearly 11 months. “Full stop. Period. Cease-fire and execution of the deal. More military pressure brings more dead hostages.”

Seven Americans, including Edan Alexander, remain held in Gaza by Hamas. Among them, the Israeli military believes, three wereslain on Oct. 7, but their bodies have not been returned. One dual Israeli-American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was among the hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday.

The Israeli health ministry said on Sunday that the six slain hostages had been recently shot at close range, according to a forensic examination. The Israeli military blamed Hamas for the killings. Hamas denied responsibility, without providing evidence.

Adi Alexander and his wife, Yael, of Tenafly, N.J., said in a phone interview that the killings of Mr. Goldberg-Polin and the other five hostages were “unnecessary deaths” and could have been prevented. The two commended the White House for being “very dedicated and very focused from the get-go” in the efforts to reach a truce.

But, Mr. Alexander added, “I wish I could see the same dedication from the Israeli government.” He said that he wanted “to call on President Biden to tell Benjamin Netanyahu: Just stop the B.S. Don’t delay the deal.”

Edan Alexander, an American member of the Israel Defense Forces, was raised in New Jersey and a star on his high school swim team. He arrived at a small military outpost near Gaza last September and was stationed there on the morning of the October attacks with Omer Neutra, 22, another American who was later taken hostage. Mr. Neutra grew up on Long Island and was captain of his school’s volleyball and basketball teams.

Mr. Neutra’s parents had bonded with the family of Mr. Goldberg-Polin in recent months, in part because their sons were close in age.

“We were holding on to a vision that they’re possibly together in captivity, that we’d see them come home,” said Mr. Neutra’s mother, Orna. “This is heartbreaking. And it shouldn’t have happened.”

Ms. Neutra and her husband, Ronen, of Plainview, N.Y., said their anger reached in many directions. To the “monsters” in Hamas who brutally executed hostages. To those who do not seem outraged that their son and more than 100 other captives still remain in Gaza. And to the Israeli government, which is facing an outpouring of demonstrations on the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities over the lack of a hostage release deal.

“The public in Israel has shown that they have lost their patience,” Mr. Neutra said, adding that he hoped Mr. Netanyahu was “getting the message that the majority of Israelis are fed up with this war, fed up with excuses. They want the hostages back.”

Other families called on the Biden administration to immediately secure the release of the American hostages in Gaza, who also include Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen. The Israeli military believes that several of the captives were killed during the Hamas-led attacks in October, including Judih Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Gadi Haggai, as well as Itay Chen, who would now be 20.

But his father, Ruby Chen, is still longing for good news.

“Until somebody shows me something physical, we are still having some hope that some miracle happened,” Mr. Chen said in a phone interview from Israel. “There’s no physical evidence on his whereabouts.”

Itay Chen was born in Israel, but loved to visit relatives in New York City and on Long Island, riding the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island and eating hot dogs at Nathan’s, Mr. Chen said. He noted that many of the American captives shared a connection to the region.

“Almost half are New Yorkers,” he said, “and these New Yorkers need to come out.”

Other parents of hostages are also outspoken in their criticism of the efforts to bring hostages home.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son, Sagui, remains captive in Gaza, last received an update about him in November, when around 100 women and child hostages were released by Hamas as part of a temporary truce. Some of them had seen his son, wounded but alive. In the months Sagui Dekel-Chen has been in captivity, his third daughter was born and his 36th birthday passed.

“We marked it as best we could,” said the elder Mr. Dekel-Chen, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His son grew up “an archetypal kibbutz kid,” learning to fix agricultural equipment by his father’s side in the machine shop, Mr. Dekel-Chen said. When he was in fourth grade, the family moved to Boston, where he learned to play baseball. He was so talented that he made Israel’s junior national team when he moved back as a teenager.

Still, the younger Mr. Dekel-Chen never stopped tinkering. Working on weekends near the old shop on the kibbutz, he took old buses and gave them productive second lives, as homes or as mobile grocery stores visiting food deserts in the region. Recently, he had agreed to turn four old airport buses into technology classrooms for a nonprofit that provides education to children in poorer and more isolated communities around the country.

Sagui Dekel-Chen was working on the buses on the morning of Oct. 7, having mostly finished refitting two of them, his father said.

Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.

Troy Closson is a Times education reporter focusing on K-12 schools. More about Troy Closson

Campbell Robertson reports on Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, for The Times. More about Campbell Robertson

Jay Root is an investigative reporter based in Albany, N.Y., covering the people and events influencing — and influenced by — state and local government. More about Jay Root