--- title: Nine American Hostages Still Held in Gaza, White House Says description: Biden is pushing for the 9 U.S. hostages to be part of the next release, after a 4-year-old American girl was among 17 released Sunday canonical: https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-27T21:17:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T12:47:04.385Z article:section: Politics og:title: Remaining Hostages in Gaza Include 9 Americans: White House og:description: Biden is pushing for the 9 U.S. hostages to be part of the next release, after a 4-year-old American girl was among 17 released Sunday og:url: https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24d8b3b9a44f5b1a/698a42c5db2987155a269987/GettyImages-1806587089.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-BIDEN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Remaining Hostages in Gaza Include 9 Americans: White House twitter:description: Biden is pushing for the 9 U.S. hostages to be part of the next release, after a 4-year-old American girl was among 17 released Sunday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24d8b3b9a44f5b1a/698a42c5db2987155a269987/GettyImages-1806587089.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nine American Hostages Are Still Being Held in Gaza, White House Confirms ## Video: Hostages and Prisoners Released Amid the Gaza Ceasefire [Watch (HLS stream): Hostages and Prisoners Released Amid the Gaza Ceasefire](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TM2N3WEe.m3u8) (2:22)  _Published 2023-11-27. In the most significant development in the weekslong war, the Gaza-based militant group Hamas has released dozens of Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel freeing over 100 Palestinian prisoners during a temporary truce._  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Nov 27, 2023 9:17 PM UTC  President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 27, 2023. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 27, 2023.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds—AFP via Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Nov 27, 2023 9:17 PM UTC Hamas still has nine American hostages, the White House confirmed on Monday, a day after a [four-year-old girl](https://time.com/6339753/american-hostage-abigail-edan-released-gaza-ceasefire/) became the first American hostage taken during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel to be released. Abigail Edan was reunited with her extended family on Sunday, one of 17 hostages released that day. Abigail’s mother and father were shot dead in front of her in their home on Kibbutz Kfar Azza during Hamas’ massacre. President Biden wants the remaining Americans to be included in a new round of hostage releases expected over the next few days, John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said on Monday, soon after Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a ceasefire for two more days. Israel originally agreed to pause the bombardment of Gaza for four days and release 150 Palestinian prisoners held in the West Bank in exchange for 50 hostages being returned home from Gaza. Biden spent the weekend making calls on the negotiations around the ceasefire from Nantucket island off the coast of Massachusetts, where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the waterfront house of investor David Rubenstein. ### More From TIME On Saturday, Biden spoke with Qatar’s Emir Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at a “very critical moment” to “help resolve an impasse,” involving which hostages would be released, Kirby said. On Sunday, Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to find terms under which Israel would agree to extend the four-day pause in fighting by another two days. The initial pause in fighting allowed the largest single convoy carrying humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks, Kirby said. Two hundred trucks were sent to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday and 137 trucks of supplies were unloaded by the United Nations in Gaza. In recent weeks, the US government has assisted more than 840 American citizens and their families leave Gaza and enter Egypt, Kirby said. As the Israeli military has waged a campaign to kill Hamas’s military leaders and destroy the group’s extensive tunnel network built under Gaza, more than 15,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Biden has faced heavy criticism from some Democrats for not doing more to pressure Israel to do more to avoid civilian casualties. Kirby suggested on Monday that Biden’s handling of the situation thus far had played a key role in the fragile progress toward peace made in recent days. “The president understands that there’s strong feelings on multiple sides,” Kirby said. “He also believes right down to his core, that the approach we’ve been taking has been getting results.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/"},"headline":"Nine American Hostages Are Still Being Held in Gaza, White House Confirms","datePublished":"2023-11-27T21:17:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:47:04.385Z","description":"Biden is pushing for the remaining U.S. hostages to be part of a new round of hostage releases expected over the next few days","url":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/","keywords":["Israel-Hamas War"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24d8b3b9a44f5b1a/698a42c5db2987155a269987/GettyImages-1806587089.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24d8b3b9a44f5b1a/698a42c5db2987155a269987/GettyImages-1806587089.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-BIDEN","caption":"US-POLITICS-BIDEN","creditText":"Andrew Caballero-Reynolds—AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/israel-hamas-war/","name":"Israel-Hamas War"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/","name":"Nine American Hostages Are Still Being Held in Gaza, White House Confirms"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Hostages and Prisoners Released Amid the Gaza Ceasefire","description":"In the most significant development in the weekslong war, the Gaza-based militant group Hamas has released dozens of Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel freeing over 100 Palestinian prisoners during a temporary truce.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TM2N3WEe/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-11-27T17:29:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TM2N3WEe.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/","duration":"PT2M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6340210/released-hostages-hamas-americans-biden/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```