Father of US hostage slams Netanyahu for prioritising grip on power

A parent of an American hostage in besieged Gaza has starkly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he is more concerned with retaining his grip on power than brokering an agreement to free hostages.

“I think the vast majority of Israelis now have come to believe, by his actions, not his words, but by his actions, that he’s been driven primarily by a desire to retain power with a narrow, very radical messianic coalition in the Israeli government,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, said during an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” television show on Sunday.

"And he has made choices to pursue this fantasy of total victory over Hamas, but his idea of total victory is a messianic one from his coalition partners, and not realistic, and he's preferred that, at least to date, over the well-being of all the hostages," he added.

Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, was taken hostage during the cross-border raid on Israel led by Hamas on October 7 last year.

About 250 people were taken from Israel back to Gaza that day.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military said it recovered the bodies of six individuals who were taken hostage on October 7.

It identified the deceased as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sergeant Ori Danino.

Goldberg-Polin, a native of Berkeley, California, was one of the Americans who had been held in Gaza.

'Enough of excuses'

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum directly criticised Netanyahu, holding him accountable for the deaths.

“If it weren’t for the saboteurs, the excuses, and the spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably be alive,” the forum said in a statement on X.

The statement continued:

“Netanyahu: enough of the excuses. Enough of the spin. Enough of the abandonment. The time has come to bring our hostages home — those living for rehabilitation and the fallen and murdered for burial in their land.”

For months, diplomatic efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have aimed to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas to facilitate a prisoner exchange and establish a ceasefire.

These efforts have also sought to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. However, negotiations have stalled, largely due to Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the ongoing genocidal war.