As Gaza war drags past 1 year mark, hope fades for a deal to bring hostages home soon

For a year now, freeing the hostages taken by Hamas has been a top goal for Israel, but 101 still remain unaccounted for. Hope of a deal to get them homein the foreseeable future is waning quickly.

Of the 240 people taken hostage from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, 117 have either been freed during temporary truces or rescued during Israel Defense Forces (IDF) missions. Dozens of the 101 who have not been freed are believed to be dead.

Four Americans – Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Omer Neutra, 22, and Edan Alexander, 21 – remain trapped among them.

Many hostage families have lost faith in the U.S. and Israeli governments. "We don't believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu's priority is to bring home the hostages," Hannaha Siegel, Keith Siegel's niece, told CNN on Monday.

"The ability to negotiate with [Hamas Leader Yaya] Sinwar to try to get the hostages that remain alive out is extremely unlikely," said Mark Schwartz, a retired Army general and former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"There’s no strategic benefit at all for Hamas. The hostages are useful human shields and getting several hundred Palestinians out of prisons, big deal," he said, referring to a potential prisoner exchange. "That’s not going to extend the life of Hamas leadership that resides inside Gaza."

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President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have for months implored Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal that would see the hostages returned home.

However, as war spread from Gaza to Lebanon to Tel Aviv – and with Israel considering an aggressive response to Iran's most recent missile attack – U.S. calls for a