US President Joe Biden welcomed the Israeli occupation army’s recovery of 4 prisoners held by the resistance in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip after carrying out a massacre that claimed the lives of more than 200 Palestinian civilians.
Biden said during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, that his country will continue to work for the return of all detainees and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
He stressed that “achieving this is very important,” and added that he welcomed the return of the four Israeli detainees to their families.
Axios and the American CNN network reported on officials saying that an American cell in Israel contributed to the operation to recover 4 detainees and worked with Israeli forces in the operation.
In a related context, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “The United States supports the return of detainees through ongoing negotiations or other means,” adding that all detainees in Gaza must be released now.
On the Israeli side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv will not stop until it completes the mission and returns all the prisoners in the Strip to their homes, noting that the operation “will be recorded in the history books,” as he described it, but he stressed that it was not without a price.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel would return all detainees “in this way or in any other way,” as he described it.
Netanyahu’s statements came after he met the prisoners – who were recovered – and their families at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, and they also came in an unusual way during the Sabbath holiday, during which he usually refrains from making any statements.
Netanyahu said in a press conference held for this purpose that they are working to return all detainees in the Gaza Strip to their homes, and claimed that “the army is able to reach everywhere in Gaza,” he said.
Netanyahu expressed his thanks to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and the team that managed the operation, according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
