Father of teen American hostage in Gaza asks Biden to ‘get a deal done’ with Hamas to free his son 

The father of an Israeli-American being held hostage in Gaza pleaded for the Biden administration to put pressure on the international community and “get a deal done” with Hamas that would release his son and hundreds of others from captivity. 

Ruby Chen’s 19-year-old son Itay Chen had been on active duty with the Israel Defense Forces when he was kidnapped from his post near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Itay is among eight Americans that remain in Gaza out of a total of 138 hostages that Hamas has refused to release since its deadly attack on the Jewish state. 

The IDF captive was “protecting values of the Western society, liberty, democracy” when he was abducted, his father told Fox News on Wednesday.

Ruby Chen joined “Special Report” with host Bret Baier just hours after joining 12 other family members of Americans taken hostage by Hamas for a meeting with President Biden at the White House. 

The meeting marked the first time that the 81-year-old president has met with the families in person since the Hamas attack on Israel. 

“They don’t have time,” Ruby Chen said of his son and the other hostages. “Each day that passes by, the probability of getting US citizens back home is not good.” 

“Any meeting that I have with officials, I put this on the table to try to emphasize the fact that you’re going back to your family and to have a nice dinner – we have an empty chair.”

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of 35-year-old Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, told Baier that information from recently freed hostages indicates that his son is still alive. While Dekel-Chen praised Biden for his efforts to free his son, he also called for “greater ones” to be made as Sagui’s time in captivity reached 67 days. 

“President Biden and the administration as a whole have been amazing partners in this struggle to get all of our loved ones back,” Dekel-Chen said. “Great efforts have been made. We ask that even greater ones be invested now. These are critical moments.” 

Ruby Chen similarly noted that he felt “a bit more” pressure should be applied to the international community. 

“We feel that the United States, as the leader of the free world … maybe can pressure a bit more, specifically Egypt, Qatar, other players that have influence, in order to get a deal done, signed on the dotted line, to get the hostages out, which is a humanitarian crisis,” Chen said. 

Chen said that he also believes the situation in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry claims 18,608 people have died since Israel began its retaliatory strikes against the city, is also a humanitarian crisis. 

“Let’s not forget the Palestinians are also hostages of the Hamas terrorist organization. The question is, how to influence Hamas to get to the negotiation table as well as the state of Israel,” he said. 

Chen added that he envisions his son – a skilled card player – doing tricks in the tunnels under Gaza as he awaits his release. 

“Hopefully he has a deck of cards … in custody somewhere, hopefully, passing time,” he said.