U.S. President Joe Biden is increasingly pessimistic that a Gaza ceasefire deal will be achieved before he exits the White House for the final time, The New York Times reported on Monday.
“Mr. Biden’s aides say the president is beginning to acknowledge that he is simply running out of time. With only four months left in office, the chances of a cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas look dimmer than at any time since Mr. Biden laid out a plan at the beginning of the summer. And the risk of a wider war has never looked greater,” wrote chief Washington correspondent David E. Sanger.
The Gaza-based terror group currently holds 101 hostages, including 97 of the 251 captured on Oct. 7. Meanwhile, hostilities between Israel and Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah are quickly escalating.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met on Tuesday with Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Missing and Captive Soldiers Division, to receive operational updates on the military and diplomatic efforts to safely return the Israeli citizens held by Hamas in Gaza.
The minister also met on Tuesday with the families of hostages remaining in Gaza, answering their questions and assuring them that the government is doing everything in its power to bring them home while acknowledging the difficult situation.
Relatives of the captives are continuing to raise awareness of their plight, with a delegation of 20 family members sailing around New York Harbor on Tuesday during the United Nations General Assembly meetings and speeches taking place this week.
The ship displayed signs reading “Let them go now.”
The delegation was organized in coordination with the IDF, Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry. During the General Assembly, they were scheduled to meet with the Czech and Bulgarian presidents, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, the World Health Organization, a representative of the Vatican, and the Swedish, French, Canadian and the European Union foreign ministers.
Family members of hostages will join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on flight to New York for his address on Friday for the U.N. General Debate at the 79th General Assembly session.
They include Sharon Sharabi, brother of Yossi and Eli Sharabi; Eli Shtivi, whose son Idan was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival; Yifat Haiman, whose 27-year-old daughter Inbar was murdered after being abducted from the party; Danny Miran, father of Omri, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and Yizhar Lifschitz, whose 83-year-old father Oded was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, who was later released.
Only half of the remaining hostages kidnapped to Gaza during the Hamas-led assault of southern Israel on Oct. 7 are still alive, Netanyahu reportedly said on Sunday.
“According to the information we have, half of the hostages in Gaza are alive,” he told lawmakers during a closed meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Jerusalem, as quoted by Israel’s Army Radio.
