Families of hostages are left hoping for ‘Christmas miracle’ after Biden meeting

The families of Americans still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza met with President Biden at the White House on Wednesday and said afterward that they believed the president and his administration were doing everything possible to secure freedom for their loved ones.

“We felt before, and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing, that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself and his administration,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who was seized on Oct. 7 from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

The closed-door meeting, which lasted well over an hour, came a day after Biden intensified his criticism of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, widening a rift between the two countries over the Israeli military’s conduct of its war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

The president has been fiercely supportive of Israel since the attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took roughly 240 hostage, including American-Israeli dual citizens. But he has also been under immense pressure to restrain Israel’s bombardment in Gaza, which health officials there say has killed more than 15,000 people.

On Tuesday, he offered a blunt assessment of Israel’s conduct of the war, saying that its “indiscriminate bombing” is causing the country to lose international support.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s office to Biden’s comments. At a news briefing Wednesday, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, responded to a question about the clash by saying, “I think we’ll find a way to help the Americans help us.” And Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, reiterated Israel’s position that it “will continue its fight against Hamas, with or without international support.”

Standing outside the West Wing holding pictures of their relatives who were taken on Oct. 7, several of the family members said the meeting with Biden and other top members of his foreign policy team was a positive one as they seek to keep up the pressure to seek their release from captivity.

The meeting with the families was not on the president’s public schedule. It was the second time Biden had spoken to the group, following a video call with them just days after the Oct. 7 attack.

A person familiar with the meeting, which took place in the Diplomatic Room on the seventh day of Hanukkah, said one family member gave Biden a menorah as a gift. Liz Naftali, the great-aunt of Avigail Idan, the 4-year-old released by Hamas after 50 days in captivity, gave Biden a photo of the little girl.

Naftali said Avigail is “a light in this very dark time.” She urged people around the world to pray for the president and others as they try to push for the release of the rest of the hostages. “We’d love a Christmas miracle,” she told reporters.