The father of an American held captive by Hamas has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that he cannot “just blame Hamas” for keeping the hostages.

Ruby Chen, whose son Itay was captured by the terror group on Oct 7, claimed that the Israeli prime minister had been ignoring the families’ demands to secure the captives’ immediate release.

Mr Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for talks on halting Israel’s offensive in Gaza City.

The meeting comes hours after Hamas claimed to have lost two of its hostages in an Israeli air strike. The terror group called for a 24-hour ceasefire to relocate the unnamed pair and gave the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unprecedented information on their whereabouts in Gaza City.

Mr Chen said Mr Netanyahu’s proposal to seize control of the war-torn enclave was “like playing Russian roulette with my kid and the 47 other hostages”.

He added: “He has an obligation to the hostages because this happened on his watch. He can’t just blame Hamas all the time. It’s easy to blame others, but he has to step up and take responsibility as well.”