Netanyahu's speech was cheered in Congress, decried by hostage families back home

Cheers and standing ovations greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress in Washington, the heart of American political power. But the barnstorming address left the father of 19-year-old soldier and Hamas hostage Liri Albag feeling heartsick.

“When he talked for 55 minutes and didn’t talk about the deal for one second, I was very upset, embarrassed and angry,” Eli Albag said in a phone interview Thursday about what he viewed as Netanyahu's unwillingness to strike a deal with Hamas for the release of relatives being held in the Gaza Strip.

He added that he wanted to believe that the return of Israeli hostages like Liri was a priority for the Israeli leader, but he said he hasn’t seen “the results.”

Albag, 55, is one of several family members of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza who demanded to meet with cease-fire negotiators after Israeli media and Reuters reported that an Israeli delegation had not set off for talks in Qatar on Thursday as planned. Instead it was reported that they were held back until next week.

Netanyahu railed against Hamas and Iran in his Wednesday address, and he said Israel would not settle for anything less than “total victory” in its offensive in Gaza, which he said “could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all the hostages.” If they didn’t, he said, “Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home.”

Large protests greeted the speech, which came three months after Congress passed a military aid package that included $14 billion for Israel, with many demonstrators decrying the nearly 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to health authorities in the enclave.

While some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, refused to attend the address amid mounting global outrage over the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded, Noa Argamani, who traveled with Netanyahu to Washington, watched the address in the chamber.

Argamani became a symbol of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, which killed 1,200 and saw around 250 taken hostage, after her kidnapping was captured in a viral video. She has faced criticism from some Israeli commentators and hostage families for joining Netanyahu, some of whom have accused her of being a pawn in a political game.

Netanyahu has also been criticized for allegedly using hostages as “props” during public appearances but not advocating hard enough for their release.

“While (Netanyahu) boasts about caring about the hostages, he’s not sending the negotiation team to Qatar to seal the deal,” Udi Goren, whose cousin Tal Haimi’s body remains in Hamas’ captivity, said in a statement.

“Why doesn’t he want more Argamanis to be back home?” he added.

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the hostage families' criticism of the prime minister's address and the government policy toward negotiations with Hamas.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the relatives of those held captive in Gaza, said the delay in sending negotiators to Qatar unfolded after hostage families had received repeated assurances from them that the delegation would be sent this week.

“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure,” the group said in a statement Thursday morning.

There are now 115 hostages who remain held in Gaza, including at least 41 who are believed to be dead, according to Israeli officials. Those numbers include four hostages who have been held in Gaza since 2014, with two of them among those believed to be dead.

According to several of the American hostage families in Washington for the Netanyahu speech and meetings, they are upset that he is in the United States instead of in Israel trying to get their loved ones home. They also told NBC News on Wednesday that they are looking toward Thursday's joint meeting at the White House with President Joe Biden and Netanyahu as a chance for Biden to pressure the Israeli leader to agree to a cease-fire deal as soon as next week with no new obstacles.

Calling Netanyahu’s speech a “disgrace,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also wrote on X that there had been “an hour of talking without saying a single sentence: ‘There will be a hostage deal.’”

The families spoke out after the Israeli military said Thursday that troops had retrieved the bodies of five hostages in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis.

Among them was kindergarten teacher Maya Goren, who died in Hamas’ captivity at age 56, according to Israeli officials. The bodies of four soldiers — Sgt. Maj. Ravid Aryeh Katz, Master Sgt. Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas and Sgt. Kiril Brodski — were also retrieved, the officials said.

The rescue operation took place as Israeli forces carried out an offensive in Khan Younis that saw tens of thousands of Palestinians forced to evacuate the area.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com