Several relatives of U.S. citizens being held hostage in the Gaza Strip who met with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday subsequently spoke with reporters for a little more than five minutes.
The pool report, paraphrasing Jonathan Dekel-Chen, said it was a “terrific meeting.”
“He said the families feel they have no better friend than Biden,” according to the report, quoting Dekel-Chen.
“We’re going to keep the private conversations private,” said Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, is being held hostage in Gaza by the Hamas terrorist organization that rules the Strip.
“We’d love a Christmas miracle,” said Liz Naftali, whose niece, Abigail Edan, was released in late November during the weeklong pause in Israel’s military operation to retrieve its civilians and rid Gaza of Hamas. “We know they are working 24 hours a day.”
"We met today with President Biden and then people from the administration. It was a terrific meeting…,”hostage family member Jonathan Dekel-Chen said. "We all came away feeling… that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden." pic.twitter.com/8eyuMhpqVV
— Nandita Bose (@nanditab1) December 13, 2023