“We’re working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel, including deploying experts to advise and assist with recovery efforts,” President Biden told Jewish community leaders on Oct. 11 at a roundtable at the White House, also attended by second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“Now, the press are going to shout to me—and many of you are—that, you know, ‘What are you doing to bring these, get these folks home?’ If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to get them home.
“Folks, there’s a lot we’re doing, a lot we’re doing. I have not given up hope on bringing these folks home. But the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre. So, I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be to try to answer that question.”
“In the days ahead, we’re going to continue to work closely with our partners in Israel and around the world to ensure Israel has what it needs to defend its citizens, its cities, and to respond to these attacks,” President Biden said. “As I said yesterday, my commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakeable. The United States has Israel’s back. And I have yours, as well—both at home and abroad.”
Details of Hostages Unknown
Earlier the same day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that 17 Americans are currently unaccounted for and 27 have been killed because of the war.
“I think we all need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers will keep increasing and that we may, in fact, find out that more Americans are part of the hostage pool,” he said.
When asked about the specific conditions of the hostages, Mr. Kirby replied, “Sadly, we don’t know.”
“We don’t know where they are. We don’t know if they’re all in one group or broken up into several groups. We don’t know if they’re being moved and with what frequency and to what locations. All of those questions, we’re working hard to answer,” he said. “We just don’t have a lot of granularity on where these people are or what condition they might be in or whether they’re being moved.”
Emphasizing the importance of discretion, Mr. Kirby didn’t say if there had been any dialogue with Hamas. “Just like in any other case when we’re talking about getting Americans home [from] overseas that have been held hostage and wrongfully detained, the less you say out there publicly, the better,” he said.
Lawmaker Helps 32 Americans to Evacuate From Israel
The latest remarks from President Biden and his administration come as Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), an Army veteran who served in Iraq, told Fox News on Oct. 11 that he has been in Israel “doing Biden’s job” in help Americans flee the country.“I worked with one of the pastors in this church group, as well as for a couple of isolated individuals that were stuck in these areas,” he said. “They had tried to get on multiple flights, [but] their flights were canceled. ... And so at that stage, I just felt it was necessary for me to step in and try and do something.”
Lawmakers Push to Evacuate Americans From Israel
Earlier, on Oct. 10, 146 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle urged the Biden administration to use all available resources, including chartering flights, to evacuate Americans seeking to leave Israel amid the ongoing war.The lawmakers told Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a letter that they had received “harrowing reports” from constituents trapped in Israel since Hamas launched a large-scale attack on the country on Oct. 7.
Numerous airlines—including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Ryanair—have halted flights to and from Israel because of the actions of Hamas, which has included terrorists firing rockets, some of which have hit Ben-Gurion International Airport, about 10 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel.
The legislators asked Mr. Blinken to “consider charter flights and military options for evacuation simultaneously.”
