Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden met on Thursday at the White House with the families of hostages who are being held in Gaza and who hold US citizenship.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the families who took part in the meeting were the Siegel family, the Alexander family, the Dekel-Chen family, the Naftali family, the Neutra family, the Goldberg-Polin family and the Chen family.
Participating in the meeting for the Israeli side were Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog.
Participating in the meeting for the American side were National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Special Envoy for the Middle East Brett McGurk and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the families of the hostages issued a statement which said, "We met with President Biden and his staff and with the Prime Minister of Israel and his advisers. We arrived with a sense of urgency. Every day that passes, the return of our loved ones alive becomes less likely. That is why we made it clear to the two leaders that a deal must be made to return all the hostages and end the suffering of the residents of Gaza. The killing will stop when the hostages return."
"At the end of the meeting, we feel more optimistic than we have at any point since the previous agreement to release hostages in November. Biden and Netanyahu pledged that they understand that, at this moment, we must not waste time and that the current deal on the table should be completed with as few changes as possible," the families said.
Ruby and Hagit Chen, the parents of Itay Chen whose body is held in Gaza, said that "President Biden gave us hope that there will be something in the coming days." Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of Hersh, added "the fact that President Biden is not running will allow him to be laser-focused on getting a deal done."