President Biden met via Zoom Friday with the families of 14 Americans missing in Israel and held hostage in the Gaza Strip after last week’s Hamas terror attack, telling CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he wants to show his administration will do all it can to get captives back home — if it can locate them.
“I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply,” Biden, 80, told anchor Scott Pelley in an interview that was recorded Thursday and will air in full Sunday evening.
“We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism. And we’re going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them,” the president added.
The White House confirmed midday Friday that the president had held the call, along with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, State Department Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, State Department official John Bass, and National Security Council official Brett McGurk. No other details of the call were immediately available.
President Biden stressed in a recent interview on “60 Minutes” that he would meet virtually with the families of American hostages taken by Hamas terrorists. CBS / 60 Minutes
“I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply,” Biden, 80, told CBS’s Scott Pelley. The White House via ReutersNSC spokesman John Kirby clarified Friday that the administration had not confirmed how many of the missing 14 Americans were being held by Palestinian jihadists in the Gaza Strip.
“We’re going to be sufficiently prudent in the kinds of information that we talk about publicly lest we actually jeopardize the effort to get these hostages released and back home safely,” he told reporters on a conference call.
Kirby said at a White House press briefing Wednesday that the administration believed the number of Americans actually “held hostage is very small” and “less than a handful.”
Terrorist groups invaded from the Gaza Strip to brutalize and kill civilians at a music festival as well as children, women and grandchildren at kibbutzim near the border with Israel. Nahar Neta
Eyal Waldman, father of 24-year-old American national Danielle Waldman, who was murdered in the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival, held on to hope that his daughter might have been taken hostage. Danielle, a native of Palo Alto, California, was at the music festival with her boyfriend, Noam Shay, when both fell victim to the Hamas terror attack. CNN“But that could change over time,” Kirby added.
Biden has been forceful in his condemnation of the “sheer evil” that Hamas jihadists carried out on Oct. 7, when they launched a multi-front invasion of Israel, murdering more than 1,300 people, including at least 27 Americans.
Thousands of rockets rained down last Saturday and Sunday on the Jewish state, most of which were intercepted by its Iron Dome missile defense system, while terrorist groups invaded from the Gaza Strip to brutalize and kill civilians at a music festival as well as children, women and the elderly at kibbutzim near the border with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared horrific photos of butchered and burned infants on his social media account Thursday, which he said he had shown Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The White House has confirmed that at least 20 Americans remain missing, some of whom were captured alongside more than 100 Israelis and apparently taken back to the Gaza Strip. Debbie Hill/UPI/Shutterstock
American Israeli families whose loved ones were taken hostage by the attack by Hamas on the Gaza border attend a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday. Debbie Hill/UPI/ShutterstockBlinken confirmed to reporters later Thursday he had seen pictures of “a baby, an infant riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their hideaway rooms.
“I could go on, but it’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,” America’s top diplomat added. “You can’t help but imagine yourself, your family, your loved ones, your friends in that situation.”
“Hamas is inhuman,” Netanyahu’s office said in a text accompanying the pictures. “Hamas is ISIS.”
The president has made several phone calls to the prime minister, expressing that Israel has the “full support” of the US government. APBiden initially said Wednesday that he had seen the same photos following reports that at least 40 babies were butchered by Hamas — but the White House later clarified that he had only heard about the pictures from Israeli media and a Netanyahu spokesperson.
The president has made at least four phone calls to the prime minister, saying Israel has the “full support” of the US government and that “all countries must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities.”
The White House has also denounced congressional members of the far-left “Squad” who called for a cease-fire immediately following the savage attack.
“I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend, and we’re going to continue to be very clear. We believe they’re wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, without naming the lawmakers.
“Our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped hundreds, hundreds of Israelis,” she added. “There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides.”
