FDD
No Thanksgiving for Americans Held Hostage by Hamas in Gaza
November 23, 2023

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas continues to hold at least nine U.S. citizens hostage in Gaza. The negotiated deal reached between Hamas and Israel announced on November 22 to have Hamas release 50 hostages — largely women and children — is expected to result in the release of three Americans. One of them is a three-year-old child whose parents were killed by Hamas on October 7. The fate of the additional U.S. hostages is unknown, as Hamas has failed to provide access or proof of life to the International Committee of the Red Cross. READ MORE

JNS Qatar: Truce starts Friday, 13 hostages to be freed in first batch The ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terror organization will go into effect at 7 a.m. on Friday, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said during a press conference in Doha on Thursday. Hamas has agreed to release the first 13 hostages at 4 p.m. on Friday, spokesman Majed Al Ansari announced. “They will be 13 in number, all women and children, and those hostages who are from the same families will be put together within the same batch,” said Al Ansari.

TIMES OF ISRAEL David Horovitz: Why Israel agreed to the hostage deal, and how Hamas may intend to exploit it As the ground operation continued, however, some war cabinet members made clear that the entire approach to the fate of the hostages had gradually changed. This culminated on Saturday night with war cabinet observer Gadi Eisenkot privately telling families of the hostages that the release of their loved ones was the first priority of the war, even ahead of destroying Hamas, and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz stating at a press conference that Israel potentially has “decades” in which to destroy Hamas while the imperative to secure the release of the hostages was urgent.

JNS Jonathan Tobin: America shouldn’t let Hamas bargain its way to victory If the United States continues to back Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas control of the Gaza Strip and to wipe out all of its military capabilities, then the hostage negotiations and the ceasefire will be no more than a brief pause that won’t impact the outcome of the war. The Biden administration has sought to micromanage and second-guess Israel’s counter-offensive from the start of this war. It also has political reasons to want the conflict to end regardless of what that will mean for the future of Israel and the Palestinians.