President Joe Biden Friday made his first public comments on the hostages released by Hamas after its Tuesday negotiated four-day ceasefire with Israel.
The president commented from Nantucket where he is vacationing for Thanksgiving.
“From the moment Hamas kidnapped these people, I, along with my team, have worked around the clock to secure their release,” said Biden.
The Israeli government approved a deal Tuesday night that will see the Palestinian Hamas terror group release at up to 80 female, child, and elderly hostages over four days, in return for a pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Israel will continue its fight against Hamas once the four-day period ends.
Biden’s comments came Friday after Hamas released the first group of hostages — 13 Israelis, 10 Thais, and one Filipino, but no Americans.
“We don’t know when [the next hostage release] will occur, but we expect it to occur,” said Biden. “And we don’t know what the list of all the hostages are or when they’ll be released, but we know the numbers when they’re going to be released. So my hope and expectation is that it will be soon.”
Hamas may withhold the release American hostages to encourage the U.S. to pressure Israel to extend the ceasefire.
The president acknowledged “the chances are real” the ceasefire is extended. “I don’t trust Hamas to do anything right,” Biden said. “I only trust Hamas to respond to pressure.”
Biden faces additional headwinds at home as progressive calls for a ceasefire gain steam.
Inside his own party, calls to condition U.S. aid to Israel on deescalation of Israeli attacks against the terrorist organization are growing.
Biden expressed his openness to consider conditional aid.
A reporter asked Biden his thoughts on calls to condition U.S. aid to Israel as a way to halt Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
“I think that’s a worthwhile thought, but I don’t think if I started off with that we would have gotten where we are today.” pic.twitter.com/Ur8pwN0qjX
— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) November 24, 2023
“I think that’s a worthwhile thought,” Biden said. “But I don’t think if I started off with that that we would’ve ever gotten to where we got today. We have to take this a piece at a time.”
Follow Bradley Jaye on Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
