Biden holds 90-minute meeting with families of 14 missing Americans
‘He wanted to hear from each and every one of us,’ says Ruby Chen, whose son Itay, a soldier, is missing; US president says he ‘cares deeply’ about those held by Hamas
US President Joe Biden on Friday participated in a virtual meeting with families of 14 Americans who are unaccounted for after the Hamas attacks.
“They have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply,” Biden had told CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Thursday.
An estimated 150-200 people are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas and are being held in the Gaza Strip. Several of them are foreigners or have dual nationality. They were captured Saturday when Hamas launched an unprecedented assault into Israel, killing more than 1,300 people, most of them civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces have so far informed 120 families that their loved ones were taken into Gaza.
“We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism. And we’re going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them,” Biden said.
The White House said other participants in the meeting included Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser; Roger Carstens, hostage affairs special envoy; John Bass, undersecretary of state; and Brett McGurk, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East.
Ruby Chen, the father of soldier Itay Chen who is missing, told Channel 12 that the scheduled meeting with Biden ran far over the allotted time, with the US president spending 90 minutes talking to, and comforting, the families.
“He has a few things on his plate, but he wanted to hear from each and every one of us,” Chen said.
The 14 families of those missing or held hostage and who have US citizenship have formed a forum in order to better advocate for the missing.
Chen contrasted Biden’s personal intervention with the lack of communication he has had from Israeli leaders. He said that apart from a representative of the IDF, he had not been contacted by any government officials or leaders.
Itay Chen, 19, was about one year into his military service in the Armoured Corps when his base near the Gaza border was attacked, Ruby Chen said.
He said the last contact they had from him was that they had come under rocket fire. He said that his son was out with a squad in the field and so far the IDF had given him no confirmation of the fate of the squad.
He was not listed among the casualties and the family had so far not heard any confirmation that he was a captive.
https://twitter.com/WatsonEman62342/status/1711700792900550741
The Chens were preparing to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish rite of passage, of Itay’s young brother Alon, and the soldier requested to stay on base over the weekend so that he could be with his family the following week, his father said.
“We still hope this celebration… will happen in the near future,” he told reporters earlier in the week.
Biden has won wide praise in Israel for his powerful backing of the country in the face of the unprecedented assault.
His message was further reinforced by visiting US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken who both visited in the last two days.
Austin assured Israel that “we have your back” as he and America’s top diplomat met Friday with Israeli and Arab leaders. There was no indication the US was trying to prevent an expected Israeli ground offensive into Gaza.
The visits to the Middle East by Austin and Blinken came as Israel escalated its war against Hamas terrorists in response to their shocking and brutal rampage last weekend.
Blinken voiced a similar message, saying at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, that although the US continues to “discuss with Israel the importance of taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians,” it was also the case that any country “faced with what Israel has suffered would likely do the same.”
“No country can tolerate having a terrorist group come in, slaughter its people in the most unconscionable ways and live like that,” Blinken said. “What Israel is doing is not retaliation, it is defending the lives of its people.”
“We’re doing everything we can to secure the release of the hostages working closely with our Israeli partners,” Blinken said during his trip to Israel on Thursday, adding that the State Department’s deputy special representative for hostage affairs Steve Gillen was traveling with him.
