An official said the White House is unsure whether any terrorist group in Gaza other than Hamas is holding any of the more than 200 people who were kidnapped from southern Israel during last month's unprecedented terrorist attacks.
Only five of the hostages have been released in the month since they were taken, even though the United States has provided assistance to Israel regarding the kidnapped individuals. Hamas, the largest terror organization in Gaza, led the Oct. 7 attacks but did not do so alone, and some of those other groups — including Palestinian Islamic Jihad — may be holding some of the hostages.
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"We don't have a pretty picture about where everybody is, what condition they're in, or how they're being held," U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. "We cannot rule out the possibility that other groups than Hamas may have hostages that they're holding."
The White House does not have "direct communications with Hamas," Kirby added, though he noted, "I have no specific progress to announce or speak to you today. Other than that, we continue to be focused on trying to get all the hostages out. Certainly, the American citizens that we know are being held, but all of them."
On Oct. 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups penetrated Israel's border fence with Gaza and went community by community, slaughtering roughly 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. Many suffered gruesome deaths that included rape and torture. Hamas also whisked away roughly 240 people and brought them back to Gaza. Some of the hostages are women and children.
Qatar has become a key partner in the hostage negotiations, though there has been limited success in facilitating their release.
Israeli leaders have said they would not agree to a ceasefire until the hostages have been safely returned.
"Well, there'll be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week. "As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We've had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don't think there's going to be a general ceasefire."
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, one of two elderly women who were the first two hostages released, said the hostages were held in the underground Hamas tunnels that the group uses to hide weapons and move freely without fear of Israeli airstrikes.
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“I went through a hell that we’d never imagined. They [Hamas terrorists] rampaged through the kibbutz,” she said, adding that they beat her with sticks which made it difficult to breathe. Lifshitz said that they “really took care of the sanitary side of things so that we didn’t get sick,” and she added, “They were very generous to us, very kind. They kept us clean. They took care of every detail. There are a lot of women, and they know about feminine hygiene, and they took care of everything there.”
Hamas officials have claimed at different points since Israel's aerial bombardment of the strip that some of the hostages were killed. A Hamas official also threatened to execute them.