Plight of hostages weighs emotionally on US, talks are ongoing — Jake Sullivan

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says hostage negotiations are “ongoing,” with the US in hourly contact with Israel and regional partners to secure their release.

“Even though we have started to see Israel move in on the ground, that has not changed our basic view that this has to remain of paramount priority,” Sullivan says.

Speaking to the plight of the hostages’ families, the national security adviser says, “It’s impossible to understand what they’re going through not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

“It’s something that weighs on us emotionally, but we are trying to stay as focused and as clear-eyed as possible in achieving the objective of bringing people home,” he says, adding that one of the purposes of the humanitarian pauses it has been pushing in the Gaza fighting is for the hostages to be able to be safely released.

Sullivan says the US is also still working on getting out the several hundred American citizens who want to leave Gaza — an objective that has hit repeated roadblocks amid Israeli, Egyptian and Hamas intransigence.