The United States and Israel aren’t sure how many hostages taken by Hamas last month “are still alive,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Nov. 12.
During an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” Mr. Sullivan said the United States is still working to release nine American citizens and one U.S. green-card holder who are suspected to have been captured by the State Department-designated terrorist group.
“We do not know the precise number of hostages. We know the number of missing, and that’s the number the Israelis have given, but we don’t know how many of those are still alive,” he said. “As far as Americans are concerned, there are nine missing American citizens as well as a missing legal permanent resident—a green card holder.”
Hamas kidnapped a number of civilians during a series of attacks in Southern Israel that left at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, dead on Oct. 7. Israeli officials have said that more than 200 civilians were captured by the group, saying they’re likely being kept in a series of tunnels underneath Gaza used by Hamas.
Since the attack, Israeli officials have vowed to destroy Hamas and begun a major bombing campaign on the group in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Nov. 11 that Gaza would be demilitarized and that Israel would retain the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down terrorists. He also rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some point regain control of Gaza. Hamas drove the PA’s forces out of Gaza in a week of street battles in 2007.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the United States opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in both Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state. Even before the war, Mr. Netanyahu’s government was staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Responding to the hostage situation on Nov. 12, Mr. Netanyahu said there might be a deal with Hamas to release some hostages but declined to elaborate on the specifics.
“We heard that there was an impending deal of this kind or of that kind and then we learned that it was all hokum. But the minute we started the ground operation that began to change.”
He noted that there could be a deal in place in the future.
Mr. Netanyahu reiterated on Nov. 12 that a “different authority” must be put in place to govern Gaza after the conflict. And when asked whether Israel can win the conflict with little support, he replied, “We will win this war, because we have no other choice.”
“There is no life for us, there’s no future for us and our neighbors, if we allow the axis of terror, led by Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and their minions to dominate,” he said, referring to Iran-backed terror groups based in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen, respectively.
Last week, President Joe Biden confirmed that he recently asked Mr. Netanyahu to institute daily pauses in its military action during an earlier call and said he had also asked the Israelis for a pause of at least three days to allow for hostage negotiations.
But the U.S. president stressed that there was “no possibility” of a formal ceasefire at the moment and said it had “taken a little longer” than he hoped for Israel to agree to the humanitarian pauses.
Similar short-term pauses have occurred over the past several days as tens of thousands of civilians have fled southward, but the Nov. 9 announcement appeared to be an effort to formalize and expand the process, as the United States has pressed Israel to take greater steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
Late last week, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters that pauses could be useful for “getting all 239 hostages back with their families.”
“So if we can get all the hostages out, that’s a nice finite goal,” he said.
