The families of Americans still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza met with President Biden at the White House on Wednesday and said afterward that they believed the president and his administration were doing everything possible to secure freedom for their loved ones.
“We felt before, and we were only reinforced in seeing and believing, that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself and his administration,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who was seized on Oct. 7 from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The closed-door meeting, which lasted well over an hour, came a day after Mr. Biden intensified his criticism of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, widening a rift between the two countries over the Israeli military’s conduct of its war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
The president has been fiercely supportive of Israel since the attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took roughly 240 hostage, including American-Israeli dual citizens. But he has also been under immense pressure to restrain Israel’s bombardment in Gaza, which health officials there say has killed more than 15,000 people.
On Tuesday, he offered a blunt assessment of Israel’s conduct of the war, saying that its “indiscriminate bombing” is causing the country to lose international support.
There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s office to Mr. Biden’s comments. At a news briefing on Wednesday, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, responded to a question about the clash by saying, “I think we’ll find a way to help the Americans help us.” And Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, reiterated Israel’s position that it “will continue its fight against Hamas, with or without international support.”
Standing outside the West Wing holding pictures of their relatives who were taken on Oct. 7, several of the family members said the meeting with Mr. Biden and other top members of his foreign policy team was a positive one as they seek to keep up the pressure to seek their release from captivity.
The meeting with the families was not on the president’s public schedule. It was the second time that Mr. Biden had spoken to the group, following a video call with them just days after the Oct. 7 attack.
A person familiar with the meeting, which took place in the Diplomatic Room on the seventh day of Hanukkah, said one family member gave Mr. Biden a menorah as a gift. Liz Naftali, the great-aunt of Avigail Idan, the 4-year-old released by Hamas after 50 days in captivity, gave Mr. Biden a photo of the little girl.
Ms. Naftali said on Wednesday that Avigail is “a light in this very dark time.” She urged people around the world to pray for the president and the Pope and others as they try to push for the release of the rest of the hostages.
“We’d love a Christmas miracle,” she told reporters. “We would love all of our loved ones to come back and be with us for Christmas.”
During the meeting, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told the families that they should keep talking about their loved ones, to keep their names in the press, according to the person familiar with the exchange. After the meeting, Mr. Biden took the families of the hostages on a tour of the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and his personal office, and took photos with each family.
A representative of the family members said they had agreed not to provide detailed descriptions of the White House meeting.
In a statement, the families said: “It has been 68 long days since the terrorists of Hamas took our family members captive. They are suffering from torture, gunshot wounds, broken bones, blown-off limbs, and we know they are not getting medicine or enough to eat.”
They added: “Every day, we worry that they are dying a little bit more. We implore our government, the Israeli government, and governments around the world to find a way to bring them home before it is too late.”
The families of the American hostages have repeatedly called on the United States to demand pauses in the fighting to allow Israel to negotiate the release of their loved ones. During a weeklong pause in fighting last month, Hamas released more than 100 of the roughly 240 hostages, including some American-Israeli dual nationals.
Mr. Biden said last week that his administration was trying to negotiate another pause by talking to officials in Qatar who have been serving as mediators between Israel and Hamas. Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, is scheduled to travel to Israel on Thursday for meetings with the Israeli government and its war cabinet.
“We’re pushing hard,” Mr. Biden told reporters. “We’re talking to the Qataris. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but we’re not giving up.”
Americans still believed to be held include Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an American-Israeli dual citizen who was gravely injured by a grenade during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel before being taken hostage. Other Americans still being held include Omer Neutra, 22, who grew up on Long Island, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, who grew up on a kibbutz in Israel and frequently visited family in Connecticut. Edan Alexander, 19, grew up in Tenafly, N.J. and is a hostage. He graduated from Tenafly High School.
The White House said the meeting was also attended by Yael and Adi Alexander; Ruby and Roy Chen; Ronen and Orna Neutra; Gillian Kaye; Aviva, Elan, Shir, and Hanna Siegel; Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg and Iris Haggai joined by phone, officials said. Mr. Blinken and Jon Finer, the president’s principal deputy national security adviser, were also there.
Family members have expressed deep frustration that they know little about the condition of the hostages. On Tuesday, Mr. Biden expressed concern for the safety of the hostages in light of reports that Israel is beginning to flood Hamas tunnels with seawater.
“There are assertions being made that they’re quite sure there are no hostages in any of these tunnels, but I don’t know that for a fact,” the president told reporters after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Ephrat Livni and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.