Biden scheduled to meet families of American hostages

Washington, Dec 13  US President Joe Biden has scheduled a meeting Wednesday with families of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 as Israel’s bombardment in Gaza escalates and the international community is turning against over its sustained military campaign.

Biden, who on Tuesday maintained that Israel is fast losing the international community’s support due to its “indiscriminate bombing”, the sharpest-ever criticism by him against Israel’s military operations in Gaza, said at a White House Hanukkah celebration.: “I’m not going to stop until we get every one of them (hostages) home.”

The same day, the UN General Assembly held a non-binding vote that was 153 to 10 in favour of a humanitarian cease-fire. The U.S. was one of the 10 counties that voted against. Late last week, the US vetoed a similar Security Council resolution and was the only member to vote against it.

Seven American men are believed to be among the 143 hostages held in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack. One American woman remains unaccounted for. Four American hostages have been released by Hamas, including two during a week-long cease-fire last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he and Biden have failed to agree on the future of Gaza following the war that’s estimated to have killed over 18,800 Palestinians and more than 1,300 Israelis, media reports said.

Netanyahu has insisted Israel will maintain security control of Gaza for an indefinite period, though most nations, especially the Arab countries, oppose this.

As Israel has begun flooding some Hamas tunnels in Gaza with seawater to flush out the militants holding hostages, the relatives of some hostages have expressed concern about the fate of their loved ones if the tunnels are flooded, considering at least some of the captives are believed to be held there, USA TODAY reported..

Biden was asked at a news conference about the report on the tunnels and said he knows of assertions that there might not be any hostages in those ones, but added: “I don’t know that for a fact.”