The hostage deal partially fell apart last week because Hamas wanted to prevent the remaining Israeli women it holds in Gaza from talking about their time in custody, US State Department spokesman told reporters in Washington on Monday.
“It seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they have been holding hostage and the reason this pause fell apart is that they do not want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” Miller said during an emotional moment in the press conference. Miller spoke four days after a week-long pause in the Gaza war ended on December 1. That deal allowed for Hamas to release 81 of the 240 captives it had seized during its October 7 infiltration into southern Israel in which it also killed over 1,200 people. Some 17 to 20 women and children remained behind, with the US and Israel charging that Hamas violated that deal. Some eight of those captives also hold US citizenship.