Father of Israeli-American man held hostage remains hopeful his son is still alive
Sagui Dekel-Chen's third child was born following his capture by Hamas.
The father of an Israeli-American man who has been held hostage by Hamas since the group's terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, says he is anxiously awaiting good news about his son's release.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, says the last update he has received about his son was in December 2023, and says the release of all remaining Israeli hostages is the "lynchpin for any better future" in Gaza.
"We are incredibly grateful to the Trump administration, to the team that's working on this for those who have been released," Jonathan Dekel-Chen told ABC News. "Over the course of the week, four members of my kibbutz, my small community, have been released, and that's an incredible relief for us."
According to Dekel-Chen, there are still 79 hostages in total, including six Americans, who are waiting to be released from the underground "hellholes" that Hamas has constructed.
Dekel-Chen is hopeful that Sagui is still alive after former hostages reported in late November and early December 2023 that Sagui was wounded, but alive.
Sagui, 36, is a father of three and is unaware that his wife and children survived. He has a new baby he has not yet met because his wife was pregnant when Hamas attacked and she delivered the couple's third daughter two months after Sagui was taken hostage.
"We don't know what Sagui knows and doesn't know," Dekel-Chen said. "We don't know if he knows his family survived. We don't know if he understands that many of his friends, people that he grew up with were massacred by Hamas on Oct. 7 in our small community. We don't know if he knows that the community itself was completely destroyed."
Dekel-Chen wants all the hostages to return home, acknowledging it will be a lot for them to deal with upon their release. They will face not only mental challenges, but will also find that they are not returning to the same communities they once knew.
The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Jan. 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners. Phase 2 of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
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