Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Monday that the U.S. “will continue to work tirelessly” to bring home the four American hostages who have now been held by Hamas for more than a year inside the Gaza Strip.
The four that remain — Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Omer Neutra, 22, and Edan Alexander, 21 — were abducted by the Palestinian terrorist group exactly one year ago Monday on Oct. 7, 2023. The abductions took place alongside the murder of approximately 1,200 Israelis.
“Hamas also took 254 people hostage that day, including 12 Americans. Four of those Americans – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Itay Chen, Judy Weinstein, and Gad Haggai – were murdered by Hamas. Four were released through an agreement the United States negotiated last November, but four remain in captivity in Gaza: Edan Alexander, Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Omer Neutra,” Blinken said in a statement.
“There are also an estimated 97 other hostages who remain held in Gaza today. They include men, women, young boys, young girls, two babies, and elderly people from more than 25 nations,” Blinken added. “Hamas should release these hostages immediately. Every single one of them must be returned to their families, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to bring them home.”
HAMAS LAUNCHES ROCKETS FROM GAZA ONE YEAR AFTER OCT. 7 ATTACKS, WHILE IDF STRIKES TERROR TARGETS
The American hostages still in Gaza, from left to right: Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra and Keith Siegel. (Hostage and Missing Families Forum)
Blinken, who on Monday called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel the “largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” also said “It is time to reach a ceasefire agreement that brings the hostages home, alleviates the suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people, and ultimately brings an end to this war.”
The youngest of the hostages, 20-year-old Edan Alexander, graduated from Tenafly High School in New Jersey in 2022 before volunteering to serve with the IDF.
“He was kidnapped Oct. 7th from his post, from the IDF post, and since then, we have no additional information about this abduction,” his father Adi has said.
Adi and his wife Yael wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times in September saying that for hundreds of days “the world has failed our son and his fellow hostages: The Israeli government has abandoned them, too many countries have turned a blind eye, and while we’re grateful for the U.S. government’s steadfast support, its efforts have yet to yield results.
Surrounded by other family members of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, speak to reporters after a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Dec. 13, 2023. (Julia Nikhinson/Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Omer Neutra, 22, also volunteered to serve in the IDF, according to his parents Orna and Ronen.
“He’s like an all-American kid. He loved sports. He was accepted to Binghamton University, but decided to defer this school. And he went to Israel on a gap year, and he connected deeply with the country, with his peers, and he decided to volunteer to the IDF, and he was taken from his post,” his mother Orna has said.
She recently told the New York Post from her home in Plainview, New York, “Our kid is a bargaining chip in this geopolitical nightmare, and we, the families, we’re just floating on this wave. We’re trying not to sink.”
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Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of American hostage Omer Neutra, speak during a press conference by families of American hostages in Gaza and elected officials, on April 5 in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose 36-year-old son Sagui is still being held in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” in September, “It is absolutely clear, the only way to get hostages home alive is by some kind of negotiated agreement with Satan.”
Dekel-Chen was abducted by Hamas in Kibbutz Nir Oz one year ago, according to the American Jewish Committee. The organization said he made sure his then-pregnant wife and his two daughters were safe in a shelter before confronting Hamas terrorists who had broken into his home.
Last November, Elan Siegel, the daughter of 65-year-old Keith Siegel, wrote in a column for Fox News Digital, “They forced my parents, unassuming people filled with kindness and a quiet sensitivity, into my father’s car and took them to Gaza.”
Siegel’s wife Aviva later was released from captivity.
“It’s just cruel to think that he’s in such terrible conditions for so long,” Aviva Siegel recently told the New York Post. “What they’re going through is the cruelest thing on Earth.”
Keith Samuel Siegel, 64, remains hostage in Gaza by Hamas (Hostage and Missing Families Forum)
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The bodies of Americans Itay Chen 19, Gadi Haggai, 73, and his wife Judith Weinstein, 70, also remain held by Hamas in Gaza.
Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
