A deal to stop hostilities between Israel and Hamas for six weeks isn’t good enough because it doesn’t ensure that Hamas will release all hostages, the father of a slain Israeli soldier said.

Ruby Chen, whose hometown is New York City, told EWTN News Nightly that he’s glad negotiators have made progress toward an end to fighting.

“But it is a bit bittersweet. On one hand, we see progress. And there’s a phase that sees movement towards getting some hostages out,” Chen said Tuesday, the day before the ceasefire deal was made public.

On the other hand, he said, “The agreement itself has a lot of loopholes. And we, the families, are a bit concerned that this agreement does not go till the end, and we’ll get all of the hostages out.”

“And as a U.S. citizen, as a U.S. taxpayer,” he added, “I had hoped to believe that the United States leading this negotiation would find a way to bring all of its citizens out in this first phase. And, unfortunately, my son, as a U.S. citizen, is not part of this first phase.”

Ruby Chen, who has both U.S. and Israeli citizenship, lost his son in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 civilians. His son, Itay Chen, who also was a citizen of both countries, was a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. For five months, Ruby Chen and his wife thought their son was a hostage, but in March 2024 they learned he was killed the day of the attack.

Chen wants his son’s body repatriated, and he has also acted as spokesman for the families of the remaining hostages, believed to number close to 100, including three U.S. citizens who are believed to be alive: Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel.

The bodies of four other Americans killed in the attack are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. They are Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, and married couple Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai.

On Wednesday, when the ceasefire deal was announced, the families of the seven Americans released a statement through a spokesman.

“We are deeply grateful that there is finally an agreement between Israel and Hamas to bring our loved ones — Omer, Edan, Sagui, Itay, Keith, Gad, and Judi — home. We have been waiting for 467 days while our family members suffer from life-threatening injuries, abuse, torture, and sexual violence. We thank President Biden, President-elect Trump, and their teams for their constructive efforts to make this possible,” the families said.

“The tireless collaboration between Israel, Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and other parties was critical in reaching this moment. The coming days and weeks will be just as painful for our families as the entirety of our loved ones’ horrific ordeals. That is why we ask all parties to stay committed to this agreement, every phase until it is fully implemented and everyone has been returned,” the families said. “We feel hopeful that under President Trump’s leadership, every last hostage will come home.”

Chen said he plans to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration as president on Monday. Trump had said several times that “all hell will break loose” if a hostage-release deal wasn’t reached by the time he resumed office.

“I have this vision that when coming to the inauguration that indeed we will be able to hear from President Trump, that invited us, that he would be able to say to me, ‘Mr. Chen’ — just like President Reagan, many, many years ago in his inauguration was able to say, ‘I brought out all of the U.S. hostages on my first day in office,’” Chen told EWTN News Nightly.

“What a fabulous piece of news that would be if you would be able to say the same thing to us and say, ‘We got all of the kids back home,’” he said. “And that’s what I’m praying for and hoping, that we have that moment. If not in the inauguration, then soon afterwards.”

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