Vice President Kamala Harris to meet with families of hostages

[Pelican Press 0]

Vice President Kamala Harris to meet with families of hostages

Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to meet on Tuesday with families of hostages believed to be held by ****** since the ******* on ******* six months ago on Oct. 7.

Five Americans remain unaccounted for and are believed to have been taken ******** by ****** during the attacks, after ******* announced last month that Itay Chen, a 19-year-old ******** soldier with dual ********-U.S. nationality, was confirmed *****. The administration has made clear that it will continue to work for the release of all hostages and an immediate ceasefire between ******* and ****** six months after the militant group’s ******* on southern ******* on Oct. 7. 

Harris is set to meet with families on Tuesday, after she did so in late October. The families of the hostages met with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday. 

One of the family members, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersh is being held by ****** in the Gaza Strip, said Sunday on “Face the Nation” before a meeting at the White House that it is a “********” of global leaders and governments involved in ******** negotiations that her son and more than 130 others have been left in captivity for six months. 

US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on April 4, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images

“We are feeling extreme desperation, despair,” she said. “And we’ve had wonderful access and sympathy, and open doors and lots of hugs from everyone in the U.S. government. But this is a very binary situation. We want our people back, *******.”

******** officials said that around 240 people were believed to have been taken ******** amid the ****** ********** ******* on Oct. 7. Six months later, less than half of those captured have been returned. Parties gathered in Cairo over the weekend to restart negotiations to release the remaining hostages being held by ******.

U.S. and Qatari-led ******** diplomacy began in October, when two dual U.S.-******** hostages — a Chicago teenager and her mother — were released. Then, during a weeklong pause in fighting in November, more than 100 hostages were released, including two U.S. citizens, one of whom was only four years old. And in late December, the final ********* woman believed to be among the hostages, ***** Weinstein Haggai, was confirmed by ******* to have *****. 

Kaia Hubbard

Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.

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