The Biden administration has expressed deep concerns over the current situation in Gaza, describing it as ‘exceedingly complex’ and posing challenges for both the United States and Israel as they grapple with hostage crisis.
Also, the U.S. has voiced its fears as to the quality of Israeli intelligence in the area which the US believes has slipped — as evidenced by the stunning success of last weekend’s Hamas sneak attack.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday confirmed that Americans are among hostages taken by Hamas, though the White House has not given an estimate of the number of hostages beyond calling it “less than a handful.”
According to a top White House official, on Thursday said the American military advisers are on the ground in Israel consulting with Israeli Defense Forces leaders about rescuing Americans and other hostages being held in Gaza, where Hamas militants took captured civilians following Saturday’s attacks on Israel.
He further added that there is currently no plan to send in American special operations units to help, the official stressing that the US has tentatively ruled out sending military personnel, including special forces, into Gaza as part of an attempt to free American hostages there, a White House official revealed.
There are a lot of hurdles in the way of any rescue mission the US might decide to undertake owing to the peculiar terrain of the Gaza region. Beside not knowing where the hostages are held, Gaza is notoriously dense, with a warren of tunnels, and officials believe that hostages — whether American or Israeli — would be spread out and likely not held together, housed in separate underground areas and with innocent civilians in an effort to make any rescue operation that much more difficult. Additionally, U.S. officials believe the quality of Israeli intelligence in the area has slipped — as evidenced by the stunning success of last weekend’s Hamas sneak attacks — and there has been a paucity of reliable information from the area.
Further complicating the situation, U.S. officials said, is that Hamas consists of numerous and often competing subgroups and militias that all operate in Gaza. Before the U.S. can put together a plan to recover hostages, officials first have to figure out which of those Hamas subgroups may be holding them.
And so, for now, the U.S. is deferring to the Israeli special forces, who have far greater experience in Gaza. A team of American military specialists has arrived in the region and is consulting with their Israeli counterparts about possible plans of action. Among other elements, U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command have offered to provide hostage rescue planning and intelligence support to the Israelis.
But, as principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Thursday on MSNBC, “We are not contemplating U.S. boots on the ground for any sort of rescue mission.”
“This is one of the most difficult aspects of what will be a very difficult operational environment for Israeli forces,” Finer added. “It’s a difficult place to fight, it’s an easier place to hide. It’s an intelligence problem, how do you actually find these people? And once you do find them, if you do find them, how do you negotiate their release or try operationally to remove them?”
The Biden administration has convened a series of meetings across a number of agencies on the fate of the hostages, who are deemed to be in great physical peril — as well as a potential political problem for a president seeking reelection.
At this moment, the U.S. does not know precisely how many Americans are being held hostage by the Hamas terror group, according to the officials. Fourteen Americans remain missing in the wake of the weekend attacks but many are presumed dead or could eventually turn up safe, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at Thursday’s White House press briefing. Kirby also confirmed that the number of Americans killed in the attacks is now known to be 27.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that he believed that only a “handful” of Americans are currently being held by Hamas, as he stood alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. is working closely with Israel to recover hostages in Gaza, with FBI and Pentagon personnel on the ground in Israel providing support to Israeli special operators. Administration officials made clear that the U.S. would play a secondary role.
“The Israelis have made it very clear that they don’t want foreign troops on their soil, that they want to prosecute these operations on their own and they have every right to want to do that,” Kirby said. “We obviously have a terrific information and intelligence sharing relationship with Israel. We’re working to improve that.”
with reports from Yahoo news