President Joe Biden spoke at a press conference on Sunday as Hamas freed 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis and the first American, in a third set of releases under a four-day truce between the militant group and Israel that the U.S. said it hoped would be extended.
Watch the president’s remarks in the player above.
Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt. Israel’s army said one was airlifted directly to a hospital. Speaking with reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Biden said the elderly woman was “very sick and was in need of immediate medical help.”
The hostages ranged in age from 4 to 84 and included Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old girl and dual citizen whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7. “What she endured was unthinkable,” Biden said of the first American freed, adding he did not know the child’s condition but could confirm she was safely in Israel. He did not have updates on other American hostages and said it was his goal to extend the cease-fire deal as long as possible.
WATCH: Israeli physician describes mental and physical recovery ahead for released hostages
In all, nine children ages 17 and younger were on the list, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Separately, Hamas said it had released one of the Russian hostages it was holding, “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin” and as a show of appreciation for Moscow’s position on the war. The Russian-Israeli citizen was the first male hostage to be freed.
Israel was to free 39 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday as part of the deal. A fourth exchange is expected on Monday — the last day of the cease-fire during which a total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed. All are women and minors.
International mediators led by the U.S. and Qatar are trying to extend the cease-fire.
Ahead of the latest release, Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip, where he spoke with troops. “We are making every effort to return our hostages, and at the end of the day we will return every one,” he said, adding that “we are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.” It was not immediately clear where he went inside Gaza.
A break in the fighting
The cease-fire agreement has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war, marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades and vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, roughly two thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The war has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians killed by Hamas in the initial attack.
Hamas and other militant groups seized around 240 people during the incursion into southern Israel that ignited the war. Fifty-eight have been released, one was freed by Israeli forces and two were found dead inside Gaza.
Families from the southern Israeli town of Kfar Aza embraced, cried, and applauded at the news that the hostages from their town had arrived in Israel. More than 70 members of the kibbutz of around 700 people were killed and 18 were kidnapped.
“I will be so excited to see her,” Shacher Fuchter, 10, said of her friend Ela Elyakim, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.
Pressure from hostages’ families has sharpened the dilemma facing Israel’s leaders, who seek to eliminate Hamas as a military and governing power while returning all the captives.
The cease-fire, which began Friday, was brokered by Qatar and Egypt and the United States. Israel has said the truce can be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive once it ends. Sullivan said the U.S. is working “with all sides on the possibility that this deal gets extended to additional hostages beyond the initial 50.”
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