White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday said a “very small number” of Americans are believed to be held hostage by Hamas following the terror attacks on Israel.
He also warned that the American death toll is expected to rise.
The U.S. didn’t know the whereabouts of the hostages or the exact number of Americans being held hostage. The administration is aware of 17 Americans who are unaccounted for, Mr. Kirby said.
The number of Americans killed rose to 22, up from 14 reported killed on Tuesday.
Mr. Kirby cautioned that both the death toll and number of missing Americans could rise.
“I think we all need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers increase,” he said.
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“Of the 17 that we know are missing, right now — and again, this is going to change — right now we think that number that we know, or we believe are held hostage is very small, very small, like less than a handful but that could change over time,” Mr. Kirby said.
He added that the Biden administration doesn’t have “a lot of granularity” on the hostages or whether or not they’ve been moved. He declined to offer specifics about what the administration is doing to bring hostages home.
“We’re obviously talking to the Israelis about what they might know. They’re on the ground and they’ve unfortunately had to deal with this sort of scenario before. They’ve been tremendously forthcoming with the information that they have,” he said, adding that a “wide net” has been cast in the Middle East to locate the hostages.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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