White House says US military might help free hostages held by Hamas

The White House has not ruled out the possibility that the US military might have to help free hostages held by Hamas.

Source: The Hill, with reference to John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, in an interview for Fox News

Details: Kirby said there are currently no plans to do so.

Asked if he would "absolutely rule out" the possibility of any kind of US forces being deployed in Israel, Kirby said, "What I won’t do is rule anything in or out when it comes to getting our hostages home."

"We’re working on this literally by the hour but again, in order for you to develop specific policy options, you[‘ve] got to have a lot more contextual information than is available to use right now and we’re working at that," Kirby added.

Kirby stressed there was a lot of uncertainty over the details of the location and number of hostages and added that the US should be careful when publicly discussing the efforts to retrieve those hostages.

He also stressed that there are no plans to deploy US troops to take part in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The State Department said on Saturday that 15 American citizens remain missing, although US officials emphasised that this does not mean that all of them are hostages.

Previously: US President Joe Biden held telephone conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as Israel prepared for an operation in the Gaza Strip.

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