A three-year-old American boy is being held by Hamas after his parents were slaughtered in the terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel, the White House has revealed.
The attack saw around 1,200 Israelis killed, the vast majority civilians, while more than 200 were taken hostage including nine Americans.
US President Joe Biden, in a call with Qatar’s leader Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, over the weekend “condemned unequivocally the holding of hostages by Hamas, including many young children, one of whom is a three-year-old American citizen toddler, whose parents were killed by Hamas on October 7”.
The statement by the White House added: “The two leaders agreed that all hostages must be released without further delay.”
The news comes as members of Congress warned hostages could be held by other, even more extreme, terrorist groups than Hamas. Only four prisoners have been released from Gaza so far, two of them American citizens.
Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz – who travelled to Tel Aviv as part of a US delegation over the weekend – told ABC’s This Week: “The hostages are in a number of places, some are in the tunnels, some are not in the tunnels.
“As it turns out some of the hostages might be kept by not Hamas – it might not be Islamic Jihad who have some of these hostages, it might be some of the citizens of Gaza.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the network that nine Americans were confirmed missing in Gaza.
He said: “There are nine missing American citizens as well as a missing legal permanent [resident], a green card holder. That’s the number that we are trying to ensure the safe return of, and we have been engaging with the families.
“In fact, I will personally be seeing family members of the American hostages this coming week.”
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Qatar’s government said earlier that Al Thani stressed to Biden the need for an immediate ceasefire and the permanent opening of the Rafah crossing into Eygpt.
Arab leaders have called on Washington to pressure Israel into halting its assault on Gaza amid a rising death toll but the Biden Administration has so far rejected the idea.
The Hamas-run Gaza health authority says that more than 11,000 people have been killed in the strip since the war began.
Around the world, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest for a ceasefire but Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said this cannot happen until all of the hostages are released.
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