Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer told CNN that U.S. citizens were among the hostages taken by Hamas in its brazen multi-prong incursion into Israel over the weekend.
Dermer made the comments on Sunday in an interview with Dana Bash, opting not to provide an estimate as to the exact number of Americans now held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with the news outlet. He confirmed that officials are looking into reports that Americans were killed during the attack.
“We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that. At the same time, there are reports of missing Americans and there again, we’re working to verify those reports,” Blinken said, according to CNN.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, terrorists affiliated with the Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, firing thousands of rockets into the country and carrying out an armed incursion that resulted in the capture of a still undetermined number of individuals. Israel subsequently retaliated with airstrikes, reportedly targeting Hamas installations, and has amassed troops and tanks at its border with Gaza.
The death toll has continued to climb, with more than 600 people reported killed in Israel as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Associated Press. There have also been reports that Israeli military personnel are still doing battle with terrorists that have dug themselves in around southern Israel.
“[T]his is the worst attack on Israel since 1973, the Yom Kippur War, almost exactly 50 years ago,” Blinken said in an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “But there’s a fundamental difference. That was a war that was state to state, country to country, army to army. This is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down Israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes, and — as we’ve seen so graphically — literally dragging people across the border with Gaza, including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, women, and children.”