The president of USA, Joe Biden, concluded a speech this Monday about the economy, investments in technology centers and the so-called ‘Bidenomics’. At the end of his statement, he said: “I apologize for having to go to the Situation Room with another matter I have to take care of.”.
The event, according to local media reports, began almost an hour after the scheduled start time, following the first news reports about the release of a pair of hostages by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
The American president later said that we can only speak of one ceasefire in Gaza whether the Palestinian Islamist group releases all the hostages kidnapped in Israel during the October 7 attack.
“The hostages must be released, then we can talk,” he said at the White House when asked if he would support a “ceasefire hostages” agreement.
Shortly before, Hamas claimed to have freed two other women kidnapped in Israel. On Friday he released his American mother and daughter, Judith and Natalie Raanan.
Israel on Monday increased the number of confirmed hostages to 222 people captured when Hamas gunmen crossed the border and attacked kibbutzim, cities and military bases in southern Israel.
Israeli authorities say more than 1,400 people have been killed, mostly civilians, in the Hamas attack on October 7, the worst since Israel’s creation in 1948.
In Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 5,000 people, most of them also civilians, have been killed during Israel’s retaliation.
Biden also referred to a phone call with Pope Francis on Sunday about the war between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“The Pope and I agree, he was very, very, very interested in what we were doing,” he said. Biden. The American president claims to have explained “the strategy” to him. “The Pope supported us in general,” he added.
Developing.
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