Hostage Families Say It’s Time for a Deal to Free Their Loved Ones From Hamas

(L-R) Hostage Itay Chen with brothers Roy and Alon and his father Ruby and mother Hagit, in an undated photo taken in Italy. Courtesy of Ruby Chen

The families of Israel’s hostages say that with the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, now is the time for Israel to negotiate a deal and bring home the hostages still being held by Hamas.

Sinwar, mastermind of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that started the current war, was killed on Oct. 16 in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, close to the Egyptian border.

“My first reaction was shock; I wasn’t expecting it,” Michael Levy, 41, brother of hostage Or Levy, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 20.

“And my second reaction was hope that, with this monster out of the picture, and he’s the one that pretty much ruined the previous deals, now there’s really a chance to find someone who can reach a deal.

“Obviously, I felt that the world is a better place without him—that goes without saying. But I’m not looking for revenge. If you ask me to choose between killing all the terrorists or bringing my brother back, I want my brother back. Then, we can deal with the terrorists.”

The government can now make a deal because Israel has met its goals against Hamas, Michael Levy said. Its leaders are all dead, as are those of Hezbollah.

“It’s not a real threat anymore,” and both the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have said so publicly, he said. “Hamas does not exist as a military organization.”

Hamas and its supporters might still carry out some terrorist actions, and there will always be some opting for terrorism, he said. But Hamas no longer can mount an Oct. 7-style attack.

The only goal left to accomplish is to bring the hostages home, and the only way to do that is through a political deal, he said.

“That’s a win for Israel and everyone knows it,” he said.

Bringing back the hostages is the top thing motivating the soldiers fighting in Gaza, and Israel can still fight Hamas afterward if it needs to, he said.

Hostage Or Levy with his son Almog. Courtesy of Michael Levy

Ruby Chen, father of hostage Itay Chen, agreed that Hamas is no longer a military or strategic threat.

“The objective of any military operation is to create leeway for diplomatic solutions. This is the time for the Israeli government to use that freedom in order to bring a deal to the table,” Chen told The Epoch Times on Oct. 20.

Chen, 55, a New York native who emigrated to Israel 25 years ago, said the U.S. government has kept the American hostage families in the loop with weekly conference calls from the White House.

He has met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA Director Williams Burns, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and other Washington officials.

But the U.S., he says, has failed so far to bring the American hostages home after an attack in which 46 Americans were killed. Excepting the Sept. 11 attack, it was the largest death toll of Americans abroad since the 1980s, he said.

“This administration has a legal obligation to get U.S. citizens out of harm’s way,” he said. “The U.S. is not just a mediator. It has equity in this conflict.”

“Now is the time to make one big last effort to bring about a deal,” he said. “This president and his team can have that as a legacy. And it would enable the families to have our closure, whatever it might be, and to move on with our lives.”

Bring Them Home

Family members of the Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, including (R-L) Ronen Neutra, Ruby Chen, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Liz Naftali, Adi Alexander, Orna Neutra, and Yael Alexander, talk to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington on Dec. 13, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Israeli hostage demonstrations have sometimes taken on a slant against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His government had been the target of massive daily street demonstrations for almost a year before Oct. 7, in opposition to its plans to make Israel’s Supreme Court less independent.

Both Michael Levy and Ruby Chen said, though, that the hostage-support movement is, for the most part, nonpolitical.

The families have tried to avoid politics, Levy said. Relatives expressing views antagonistic to Netanyahu and his conservative coalition are often more distantly related, such as cousins.

Demonstrations at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, where family members tend to gather, have not been political, Levy said. Those in other locations sometimes have been.

Demonstrating, he said, “doesn’t mean the families are against the government or want to replace it. We want our loved ones back.”

The teddy bear belonging to Almog Levy, a 2-year-old Israeli boy whose father, Or Levy (pictured), has been held hostage by the terrorist group Hamas following a surprise attack on the country on Oct. 7, 2023. Or Levy's older brother, Michael Levy, has traveled around the world with the teddy bear, rallying support to free his brother. Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times

“We all have political views, obviously. But the families are coming from all political views: right, left, center, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, you name it. Everything. We’re all for the same goal, which is to bring them back.”

Ruby Chen, one of the six elected members of the hostage family steering committee, agrees that the bring-them-home movement hasn’t been hijacked by anti-Netanyahu forces. He noted that some of the demonstrators are of that bent, though.

He points out that many on Israel’s right and from its religious circles stand with the hostage families.

“The religious values of Judaism have always been about unity, about preferring life to death, and working together,” Chen said.

In the United States, the families of the eight U.S. hostages have worked to keep it a bipartisan issue.

“We meet with Republicans as much as Democrats,” Chen said. When they were invited to the State of the Union, his invitation came from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), while his wife’s came from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Or Levy

On Oct. 7, 2023, Or Levy, then 33, and his wife Eynav, 32, had just arrived at the Nova music festival near the Gaza frontier, a mere ten minutes before the attack started at 6:29 a.m. They tried to flee to their car and then hid in a bomb shelter. Their family last heard from them at 7:39 a.m.

Eynav’s body was found in the shelter, and her family was informed of her death a few days later. The IDF told them Or had been taken hostage. The IDF has told the family they think he’s alive, Michael Levy said.

Their son, Almog, has been living with his grandparents, Michael said. He celebrated his third birthday in June.

“It was the saddest birthday I’ve ever been to. We try to keep him happy, make him feel loved and hugged, but it won’t be the same without his father. In the meantime, we do our best,” Michael Levy said.

Or Levy and his wife, he said, were “what people call the perfect couple. They were always together, always traveling, having fun together. A normal young couple with hopes and dreams.”

They exemplified, he said, “the Israeli dream,” with Or Levy “a genius at computers” and already having sold one start-up company. His wife was a graphic designer. They loved the scene of music festivals like Nova, they traveled to attend others, and their friends went to them as well. Or Levy was the youngest of three sons, with Michael the oldest, after whom came Tal.

Itay Chen

Chen’s son, Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, was an IDF soldier in the IDF Armored Corps’s 75th Division. He was on a base at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which Hamas overran, his father said. His unit fought back, but they were outnumbered and taken captive, he said.

The army, which initially thought he was taken hostage, said in March that Itay was killed on Oct. 7 and his body taken to Gaza.

But there is no proof, Ruby Chen said, and the family continues to hope for a miracle. Itay loves basketball.

His father took him to New York to, among other things, go to a Knicks game “but he inexplicably became a Celtics fan.”

The family went ahead with the bar mitzvah of Itay’s younger brother, Alon, a week after Oct. 7, he said. Thousands showed up to support the family. Itay is the second of three Chen sons, including the eldest, Roy.

Of the eight U.S. hostages, one, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was executed recently, and his body was recovered by the IDF. Of the other seven, at least two are likely already dead: Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein. The couple were out for an early-morning walk at Kibbutz Nir Oz and were killed, but Hamas terrorists took their bodies back to Gaza, Ruby Chen said.

Four perhaps are alive, and Itay’s fate is uncertain.

Israel needs them all back, living or dead, Ruby Chen said. He said Israel looks at this much like the U.S. military looks at the recovery of the bodies of those who have fallen.

“If Itay was killed, he’s still a hostage and should be counted as one,” the father said.