Updated January 16, 2025 at 12:01 PM ET
As Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal, Jonathan Dekel-Chen hopes his son will be released in the coming days. Sagui Dekel-Chen, an Israeli American and father of three girls, was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a village close to the Gaza border.
Though he is believed to be alive, his father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, says the only information he has about Sagui came from a wave of hostages, who were released in November 2023 during a temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas.
"About 100 women and children hostages were released by Hamas, and some of them were able to tell us that at that time, late November, early December [2023], they had seen [Sagui] alive," Jonathan Dekel-Chen said. "But they had seen many others from our community, kibbutz, 10-year-olds at that time, who we know for a fact were subsequently murdered by Hamas in captivity."
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is holding onto the information he received over a year ago, but he says those details mean "very little now." And Sagui's daughters, one whom he has not met yet because she was born months after he was kidnapped, cannot comprehend their father's absence.
News broke Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire. Mediators said this is the closest the two sides have been to ending the 15-month war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a cabinet meeting where the ceasefire would be voted on was delayed until Hamas pulled back on demands he called "last-minute concessions." Hamas has denied last-minute demands and said it is committed to the agreement announced by the mediators.
The ceasefire, though it's unclear when it will begin, will stop the fighting in Gaza for six weeks, hostages will be released, and Palestinians will be able to return to what is left of the Gaza Strip. In the first phase, lasting six weeks, Hamas promises to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for a far greater number of Palestinian detainees. As NPR has reported, Sagui Dekel-Chen is one of two U.S. citizens listed for release by Hamas in the first phase, and hostage families say they are hopeful all their loved ones will return home.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen attributes the ceasefire deal to President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.
"The Biden administration did what it could, but, clearly, there was something else needed, and that something else, evidently, came from President-elect Trump," he said. "We clearly saw immediately after his statement a kind of undusting of a very stagnated process that had really not moved for weeks, perhaps even months. That is clear."
"Now, what the result is going to be remains to be seen."
NPR's Leila Fadel spoke to Jonathan Dekel-Chen about his son, Sagui, and what the ceasefire could mean for his community.
The following excerpt has been lightly edited for clarity.
Leila Fadel: Jonathan, there have been so many times over the last eight to 10 months where a ceasefire deal seemed possible and didn't happen. Does this time feel different for you and your family?
Dekel-Chen: Well, we'll know in a couple of days, I imagine. I mean, clearly, there's a sense of urgency now that was triggered by President-elect Trump's statement nearly seven weeks ago that demanded that all parties do what they must to get a hostage deal and ceasefire done before he assumes office next week. And that clearly rattled enough cages in Israel, Qatar, Egypt and, of course, in Hamas to move things forward at a pace that we've actually never seen before.
Fadel: Do you know anything about whether your son's name is on a list of hostages who could be released if this deal comes through?
Dekel-Chen: Honestly, I only know what has been published in the media in Israel and abroad. I have no way of knowing whether or not Sagui will be coming out in the first wave of releases. But I think I can speak for all Israelis that hostage number 98 is no less important than hostage No. 1 for getting them all home. And of course, by way of this hostage deal, be able to end the madness in Gaza.
Fadel: What has it been like to be in limbo for all this time without news of Sagui?
Dekel-Chen: It's been hellish. There's no other way to say it. I look into my granddaughter's eyes, he has three little girls, and one of whom he's never met, who was born two months after Hamas' massacre near Oz. And I cannot answer any of their questions about why their father was kidnapped.
I have no answers for these lovely and lovable three little girls. 'When's Dad coming home?' 'Is he OK?' It's been awful on multiple levels.
And of course, our homes were completely destroyed and our way of life under Oz by the terrorists and looters that came to our kibbutz on Oct. 7.
Fadel: Have you talked to the girls about the developments at all, do you protect them from it? I mean, how do you talk to his daughters about the future and their father?
Dekel-Chen: We don't get into the details because we don't want them to be crushed with disappointment, but they hear what they hear in the environment around them. And we try to reassure them to the degree that it's possible, because the two older ones, of course, miss their dad terribly, that we're doing everything that we can. And we will not stop until he comes home. Is that good enough for a 7- and 3-year-old? Of course not.
For the 1-year-old, that's the beauty of being 1 years old. She doesn't ask a lot of questions. But as far as the older girls are concerned, it's been an enormous challenge.
None of us can begin to heal until the hostages are home. And again, as a consequence of that, allowing the people of Gaza to resume something that resembles normal life.
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