The families of American citizens who are being held hostage in Gaza are asking the US to consider making a unilateral deal with Hamas that wouldn’t involve Israel, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
The families made the request on Sunday during a meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, which came after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages, including US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Sources told NBC that the US told the families they would consider “every option” but said they believe a deal with Hamas that includes Israel is still the best approach. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been sabotaging the chances of the deal by continuing to demand Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
After the six bodies were recovered from Gaza, families of the dead hostages said Netanyahu was to blame for their deaths for not reaching a deal. The US has refused to put any real pressure on Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire and continues to ship weapons to Israel to support the genocidal slaughter in Gaza.
It’s unclear whether the US has anything it could offer Hamas to secure the release of the remaining Americans in Gaza. According to NBC, there are four Americans who the US believes are still alive and three others believed to be dead.
The Biden administration has put together a list of prisoners in the US that Hamas might want to see released, but Hamas’s main demands are for a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. The US could achieve a full hostage and ceasefire deal by threatening to cut off military aid to Israel, which is vital for sustaining military operations in Gaza, but there’s no sign the administration is considering doing that.
