‘Reason to Believe’ 4-Year-Old American Girl Among Next Group of Hostages Released by Hamas

A 4-year-old girl with dual American and Israeli citizenship is expected to be among the hostages released by Hamas on Sunday, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Avigail Idan (her name has sometimes been spelled Abigail Edan in U.S. media) was only 3 years old when her parents were killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, according to The New York Times. She turned 4 on Friday.

Hamas, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, and many other Western nations, is currently in the middle of a four-day ceasefire with Israel that involves releasing the women and children among the hostages they seized during the Oct. 7 attack.

“We do have reason to believe that there will be an American released today,” Sullivan said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, meaning Idan, although he was declined to confirm her release until it happened. From the Times report:

“We also will not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts,” he said.

Mr. Sullivan said he could not confirm if Avigail would be released on Sunday.

“At least one American will be released today. I cannot confirm who it will be, or that it will absolutely happen,” Mr. Sullivan said, adding that “we are dealing with a terrorist group.”

Fox News’ Trey Yingst reported live from Tel Aviv, Israel Sunday to show “Hostage Square,” where the families of the hostages had set up tables with place settings for their loved ones, and coming every night to “raise awareness about those hostages that are still inside Gaza.”

Yingst added that Qatari officials, who were managing the ceasefire negotiations, have said the next wave of hostage releases “is moving forward tonight.”

“There were a few hiccups in the conversations but eventually, in a matter of hours, they expect those hostages to be handed over to the Red Cross and then ultimately into the hands of Israeli intelligence agents at the border to confirm their identities and then bring them back here to Israel.”

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan tweeted about Sullivan’s comments and added that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, had told her that Idan’s name “appears on the list of hostages Hamas is expected to release today.”

From the transcript posted by CBS:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Sheikh, the White House told us that at least one American is expected to be released by Hamas today. You’ve seen the list of hostages. Will we see four-year-old Abigail Edan released today and are you confident this exchange will happen?

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: Well, so far things are moving in the right direction. We’ve been working very closely with the U.S. government, with the White House, of course, and we are hoping that we will see the release happening shortly. And within that list, they include Abigail, the young girl, four years old.

UPDATE 10:35 am ET: Sullivan made nearly identical comments on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.

From CNN’s transcript of Sullivan’s comments:

Here’s what I will say. We are now hopeful that Abigail will be released, reunited with her family. She turned 4 just two days ago. She has been through hell. She had her parents killed right in front of her and has been held hostage for the last several weeks. We are hopeful that she will be released. We are hopeful that she will be released. I’m not going to confirm that it’s today, but I am going to say that we have growing optimism about Abigail, and we will now watch and see what happens.

Watch the video above via Fox News.