The Times of Israel (TOI) reported that the relatives of the eight U.S. citizens being held as hostages in Gaza remained seated yesterday while Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu received scores of standing ovations from the U.S. Congress. “They stared stoically and uncomfortably, seeming utterly unconvinced by the premier’s words,” according to TOI.
Ronen Neutra, the father of hostage Omer Neutra told TOI that “the prime minister is standing there. He’s the only one holding the keys for reaching an agreement, and the overall feeling is that he’s engaged in stalling tactics, that he’s indecisive, and in this case, that he’s costing the lives of hostages…. We’ve been hearing since January that we just need to apply a little more pressure and then Hamas will agree to release the hostages. He said this before [the IDF] went into Khan Younis, and then before [it] went into Rafah. We went into Khan Younis and Rafah. We took over Rafah. We now control all of Gaza, and we still don’t have the hostages home. The Israeli security establishment is saying that it has accomplished all of its goals and that the time has come for a deal, yet he’s not taking the deal. If it’s not political, what’s the reason?”
Shortly before his speech to the joint session of Congress, Netanyahu’s office announced that the departure of Israel’s hostage negotiating team for talks in Qatar was being delayed once again, as Netanyahu put them on hold a week ago.
Ronen Neutra and a handful of other relatives listened passively to the speech. Some hostage family members refused to attend, preferring to demonstrate outside. And six hostage relatives attended the speech, dressed in bright yellow shirts that read “Seal the deal now.” They were guided out of the room and then arrested, as they had stood for the ovations, but were slow to sit back down after the rest of the audience had taken their seats.
