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President Biden, NY mayor meet families of hostages

Although President Biden has spoken to individual families of hostages, this is the first time a group of them has gathered at the White House.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

At the White House on Wednesday, President Biden met with families of American citizens held hostage in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer were also at the meeting.

Currently, the Biden Administration is attempting to begin negotiations that will lead to another humanitarian pause in fighting to release additional hostages, similar to the pause last month during which over 100 captives were freed.

Although President Biden has spoken to individual families of hostages, this is the first time a group of them has gathered at the White House.

Among the remaining 135 hostages are seven U.S. citizens and one who holds a green card.

Joining the meeting were: Yael and Adi Alexander, relatives of 19-year-old hostage Idan; Ruby and Roy Chen, relatives of 19-year-old hostage Itay Chen; Ronen and Orna Neutra, relatives of 22-year-old hostage Omer; Jonathan Dekel-Chen and Gillian Kaye, relatives of 35-year-old hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen; Aviva, Elan, Hanna and Shir Siegel, relatives of 62-year-old hostage Keith Siegel; and Liz Naftali, a relative of released 4-year-old hostage Avigail Idan.

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Participating in the meeting by telephone were Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of 23-year-old hostage Hirsh; and Iris Haggai, daughter of 70-year-old hostage Judith Weinstein and 72-year-old hostage Gad Haggai.

New York Mayor Eric Adams also hosted families of hostages at a Chanukah event.

The mayor, who visited Israel shortly after the October 7th massacre, spoke of the significance of Chanukah, the need to eliminate the terror group Hamas, and expressed hope for the safe return of hostages.

“We are in a defining moment, a moment in which we understand the importance of light and what it symbolizes, especially after the terrible events of the seventh of October.”

Adams continued: “We want to be clear in our call: Hamas must be destroyed. I support the families of the abductees who came to New York to express the demand for the return of their loved ones home now.”

“It’s a failure that those responsible for the heinous crimes are not brought to justice, when there are prisoners in Gaza when the networks are filled with hate.”