Biden to meet with families of US hostages held in Gaza, says official

President Joe Biden will meet with families of Americans held hostage in Gaza, a US official said on Tuesday. The meeting will take place at the White House later this week, Reuters has reported.

This will be the president’s second such meeting since hostages were taken during the cross-border incursion led by Hamas on 7 October last year. A number have been released in exchange deals between the Islamic Resistance Movement and the occupation state, and some have been killed in Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinians in the enclave.

The Israeli offensive has also killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, and wounded at least 90,000 others. An estimated 10,000 are missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces.

Biden, who has been recovering from Covid-19, is expected to meet with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, according to an official. This will be their first meeting since the US president announced that he is not standing for re-election in November.

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