US President Joe Biden said Sunday, on the 100th day since October 7, that America was still working to bring home the “more than 100 innocent people, including as many as six Americans, who are still held being hostage by Hamas in Gaza.”
In a statement marking the somber anniversary, Biden said that “their families have lived in agony,” and at the same time, they have been “at the forefront of my mind as my national security team and I have worked non-stop to try to secure their freedom.”
Biden said his administration has “pursued aggressive diplomacy to bring the hostages home,” lauding the deal in late November under which more than 100 of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7 were freed.
“I will never forget the grief and the suffering I have heard in my meetings with the families of the American hostages,” Biden added. “No one should have to endure even one day of what they have gone through, much less 100.
“On this terrible day, I again reaffirm my pledge to all the hostages and their families — we are with you. We will never stop working to bring Americans home,” said the US president.
It is believed that 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 25 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Also Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed the US “will not rest” until all remaining hostages are back home.
“100 days of captivity in Gaza is far too long,” Blinken wrote on X. “The United States will not rest until all remaining hostages, including six Americans, are reunited with their loved ones.”
The US provided unprecedented military and diplomatic support for Israel after the October 7 massacre, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping at least 240 to Gaza.
However, Washington has been increasingly critical of Jerusalem as the death toll from the military operation in Gaza rises, and as fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah amid continued attacks by the Lebanon-based terror group, prompting fears that the war could spread.
The Biden administration is eager to see fighting in Gaza wind down, and the humanitarian situation in the Strip improve significantly.
The US and Israel have also been at odds over Gaza’s post-war future, with Biden seeking a revitalized Palestinian Authority to take charge, with an eventual path to a two-state solution, while Netanyahu’s hardline, right-wing coalition is opposed to such an outcome, and yet to make clear what the Strip will look like following the war.
With Biden trailing likely GOP challenger Donald Trump in polling ahead of this year’s presidential election, the need to move past the scenes of destruction in Gaza takes on additional urgency in Washington.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, at least 23,968 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The figures issued by the Hamas-run health ministry cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF estimates it has killed some 9,000 terrorists in Gaza in addition to another 1,000 who were killed in Israel on October 7.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.