By Emily Goodin, Senior US Political Reporter for Nantucket and Nikki Schwab, Senior US Political Reporter for Nantucket
19:53 24 November 2023, updated 20:51 24 November 2023
- President Joe Biden addressed the Gaza hostage situation from Nantucket on Friday afternoon
- Biden credited “broad US diplomacy” in the hours after the first hostages were freed
- No Americans have yet left Gaza, and the president was unsure when the missing American citizens would be released
President Joe Biden on Friday credited “broad US diplomacy” for the release of hostages from Hamas, but said it was “just the beginning” as no American citizens had yet been freed.
He told reporters that he was not sure when the first American citizens would leave Gaza, as two American women and four-year-old Abigail Mor Edan were believed to be among the hostages who were taken in the brutal Hamas terror attack on October 7 Israel .
Biden addressed the nation Friday afternoon from the White Elephant Hotel in Nantucket while spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family on the Massachusetts island.
“We don’t know when that will happen, but we expect it will happen,” Biden said when asked when the Americans would be released. “And we don’t know what the list of all the hostages is and when they will be released, but we do know the number that will be released.”
“So I hope and expect that it will be soon,” the president added.
He said he had hoped to get news about the American citizens being held hostage before addressing the press.
“In the next hour or so, we’ll find out what the second wave of releases is.” And I hope it’s as we expect,” Biden said.
He called today’s releases – said to be 13 Israelis, 10 Thai prisoners and one Filipino national – “the beginning of a process”.
“We expect more hostages to be released tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that,” he said. “Over the next few days, we expect dozens of hostages to be returned to their families.”
He admitted that there are two American women and a four-year-old child, Edan, who remain among the missing.
Edan’s fourth birthday is today.
“We’re also not going to stop until we get these hostages home and get answers to where they are,” Biden promised.
The president also admitted that the US did not know the condition of the American hostages.
The White House confirmed earlier Friday that the first group of hostages released by Hamas did not include American citizens.
Earlier Friday, Biden was briefed repeatedly by his national security team on the latest developments regarding the release of hostages from Gaza, the White House said.
“This morning I was engaged with my team as we begin the first difficult days of executing this deal,” Biden said. “It’s just the beginning, but so far it’s going well.”
So far, 25 people have been freed after hundreds were kidnapped and taken to the territory by the terror group in its attack on Israel on October 7.
The president noted how this group of hostages included “an elderly woman, grandmothers and mothers with their young children, some under the age of six.”
“All of these hostages have been through a terrible ordeal, and this is the beginning of a long journey of healing for them,” Biden said. “The teddy bears waiting to greet these children at the hospital are a stark reminder of the trauma these children have endured at such a young age.”
On Thursday, as the president and first lady Jill Biden delivered Thanksgiving pumpkin pies to a Nantucket fire department, Biden told reporters, “Fingers crossed,” when asked if Edan would be among the first hostages freed.
Edan is the youngest known American citizen held by Hamas.
“To think that Friday is Abigail’s fourth birthday and that she should be home with her family, with her sister and her brother, and she’s not right now,” Edan’s great-aunt Liz Hirsch Naftali told CNN. choking as she spoke.
The toddler was reportedly being held by her father, photojournalist Roy Edan, when he and her mother, Smadar Edan, were shot and killed by Hamas terrorists.
“It’s like you understand your emotions, you have to keep them under control because otherwise you’re thinking about nine-month-olds, little girls, little boys, mothers, and you’re just hoping there’s somebody holding those little kids,” Naftali said.
“When people ask this, I’m not a politician, I’m not a diplomat, I’ll believe it when I see them come out, be expelled and be free,” Naftali also said.
