American Israeli families of hostages say Netanyahu must accept cease-fire deal or risk ‘total failure’

The American families of hostages held by Hamas are pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce in a Wednesday speech to Congress that he will accept the cease-fire deal laid out by President Biden, describing anything less as a total failure. 

Eight U.S. citizens are among the 120 hostages held by Hamas since the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Three of those people are known to have been killed, but their bodies have not been released by Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

Biden has said Israel and Hamas have accepted a three-phase cease-fire deal in principle and are working to hammer out final details and logistics. Netanyahu’s office has said that he directed the Israeli negotiation team to engage in discussions on Thursday — although a location has not yet been announced. 

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is here this week to address Congress on Wednesday. We fully expect that his speech to Congress on Wednesday is going to be the announcement of this hostage deal that we’ve all been waiting for,” said Jonathan Polin, the father of American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. 

Goldberg-Polin was seen in footage from Oct. 7 being loaded onto the back of a truck with other people being kidnapped, with part of his left arm blown off. Hamas released a propaganda video showing a gaunt-looking Goldberg-Polin in their custody, his injured arm appearing as a stump and his head shaved.

Jonathan Polin, along with other American family members of hostages, addressed a roundtable of journalists on Monday ahead of Netanyahu’s arrival in the U.S. 

“Now is the right time, it is 290 days past the right time, but now is the time to close this deal,” Polin said. “We view any speech that is not the announcement of the signing and closing of a hostage deal to be a total failure.” 

The American families of hostages have requested a meeting with Netanyahu separate from the families of other hostages held by Hamas.

Ronen Neutra, whose son has been held in captivity, called Netanyahu a “guest of the United States” with a responsibility to answer the American families and their congressional representatives over what he is doing to secure the release of the hostages. 

“We feel this is a good opportunity to hear from him and keep him accountable to the deal that is on the table, and that’s why we ask for this meeting,” Neutra said, adding that Netanyahu’s staff has not confirmed the meeting.

Neutra, along with his wife Orna, addressed the Republican National Convention last week and were met with chants from the crowd of “Bring them home.”

Ronen Neutra said he and his wife had a short call with former President Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, in October and that Trump was “very sympathetic.”

“It was early in the game but we did urge him at that point of time to keep this issue bipartisan, and he agreed that it needs to stay bipartisan as a humanitarian issue and not make it into any political issue. He agreed with us. We sent him a thank you letter stating that. It was short, it was supportive and that was it.”

Updated at 2:47 p.m. EDT