President Donald Trump mentioned the hostages in Gaza, however briefly, in his address to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Trump said:
In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza.
In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations, the Abraham Accords.
And now we’re going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region.
On television, the camera panned to Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been the president’s leading diplomat in the effort to free the remaining hostages.
At least one freed hostage, Noa Argamani, was in the gallery, at the invitation of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Trump is set to meet with several freed Israeli and American-Israeli hostages at the White House this week. However, he did not dwell on the issue in an address that largely focused on domestic priorities.
Similarly, Trump did not discuss his plan to take over Gaza after moving its inhabitants, nor did he speak about the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Israelis noted Trump’s commitment to the region, though Israeli commentators noted that the president had chosen not to break news about the ongoing conflict.
Negotiations are in a tense stage, with the U.S. and Egypt offering competing plans for Gaza, and Hamas still holding out against a formal extension of the ceasefire because it does not want to meet an American demand that it release all of the remaining 63 hostages, 24 of whom are thought to be alive.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
