Release of hostages by Hamas "start of a process": US President Joe Biden

Nov 25, 2023

Washington DC (USA) November 25 (ANI): Terming the release of the initial batch of hostages as a part of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, the "start of a process," President Joe Biden said the United States expects "dozens of hostages" will be returned to their families over the next few days. " Early this morning 13 Israeli hostages were released...all these hostages have been through a terrible ordeal and this is the beginning of a long journey of healing for them...Today has been a product of a lot of hard work and weeks of personal engagement. From the moment Hamas kidnapped these people, I, along with my team, have worked around the clock to secure the release we saw...I've consistently pressed for a pause in the fighting for two reasons to accelerate and expand humanitarian assistance going into Gaza and to facilitate the lease of hostages. Over the past several weeks, I've spoken repeatedly with the Emir of Qatar, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, to help secure this deal and I want to thank all three leaders for their personal partnership to get this done… As I said, today’s release is the start of the process… We expect more hostages to be released tomorrow…," said Joe Biden.