US President Joe Biden threw cold water Wednesday on prospects for a new deal to secure the release of additional hostages held by Hamas, but maintained his senior officials are continuing to pursue a breakthrough.
Asked about the prospects for a deal materializing anytime soon, Biden told reporters, "there's no expectation at this point, but we are pushing."
An estimated 239 hostages were taken back to the besieged Gaza Strip following Hamas's surprising Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel when nearly 1,200 people were believed to have been killed.
Several waves of detainees were released in November during a weeklong halt to the hostilities that saw Hamas and Israel exchange detainees. Israel released 3 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons in exchange for every hostage.
Israel estimates that over 130 hostages remain in Hamas captivity.
More than 19,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since October, according to health officials in the enclave. Israel's bombing and ground campaign has also resulted in widespread devastation in the coastal enclave amid rampant shortages of food and water, and Israel's ongoing curtailed deliveries of humanitarian aid.
Asked by reporters about expectations that the Palestinian death toll will soon surpass 20,000, Biden said, "it's tragic."
