Israel war: Biden speaks with family members of Americans still missing

President Joe Biden spoke with the relatives of the 14 Americans who remain unaccounted for in Israel following last weekend’s unprecedented terrorist attacks.

“Today’s call was led by the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens and included a couple of family members from each of the families of those 14 Americans,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters. “The president conveyed directly to these families that they have been in his prayers and we affirm for them that the United States government is doing everything possible to locate and bring home their loved ones.”

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Biden was joined on the call by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan; special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens; undersecretary of state, John Bass; and National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.

The Biden administration has said 27 Americans were killed in the attacks. Among the 14 that are still missing, the White House believes “less than a handful” of them are among the roughly 100-150 people who were taken hostage by the perpetrators and brought back to Gaza, Kirby added.

“I’ve directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise the Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery — recovery efforts, because as president I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,” Biden said on Tuesday.

Last weekend’s terrorist attacks in southern Israel claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people, a vast majority of whom were civilians. In some instances, civilians were executed, raped, burned alive, and babies were among the dead. Hamas and the other terrorist groups involved in the attacks mainly killed people at an outdoor concert and in the small communities near the Gaza border. It took the Israel Defense Forces days to fully regain control of Israel’s borders, and the IDF said it recovered the bodies of more than 1,500 terrorists within its borders.

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The administration has denied that any U.S. troops would join Israeli forces’ operations. Israel’s military has said it dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since the attack commenced. The military’s strikes have killed nearly 1,800 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, while roughly 423,000 people have been displaced, per the United Nations.

Israel appears to be on the verge of a ground incursion into northern Gaza. They urged people in northern Gaza, more than a million of them, to evacuate south within 24 hours on Thursday, though international leaders have expressed concerns about the feasibility of such a massive evacuation in such a short time frame. Hamas hides within the civilian population in Gaza and urged residents not to heed Israel’s evacuation request.