It is believed that nearly a dozen Americans were killed by Hamas terrorists during their violent invasion of southern Israel over the weekend, while an unknown number of U.S. citizens living in Israel or Gaza are missing and unaccounted for and are suspected to currently be held as hostages by the radical Islamist group.
In light of those intolerable developments, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday called upon the U.S. government to immediately take action to ensure the safe evacuation of any and all Americans in the conflict zone, according to NBC News.
That was the first of a five-step plan McCarthy put forward as a framework for how the U.S. government should respond to the unprecedented in size and scope incursion into Israel by Hamas militants that included the wanton murder of around 1,000 Israelis and foreign citizens as well as the kidnapping, rape, and torture of hundreds of innocent people that Hamas proudly filmed and shared online.
Rep. McCarthy, who was just ousted as House Speaker last week, nevertheless acted on Monday as though he still retained that influential and powerful position as he held a lengthy press conference to discuss the Iranian-backed Hamas assault on Israel, according to NBC News.
In that press conference, he announced his five-step plan to respond to the murderous attack which has been confirmed by multiple sources to have included American citizens among the dead, wounded, and captured.
"The very first thing we need to do is rescue the American hostages," McCarthy said before laying out the rest of his plan.
That included demanding the extradition of Hamas leaders, reinstating the prior "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign against Iran, refocusing attention on U.S. border security and investigating U.S. intelligence failures, and fully condemning the grotesque display of antisemitism in America by supporters of Hamas and the Palestinians that was observed in a number of U.S. cities in recent days.
Following that press conference, McCarthy also appeared for an interview on NBC News to discuss the situation and reiterate his five-step plan for how the U.S. government should respond to the atrocities that were perpetrated by Hamas, predominately against Israeli Jews but also against a number of foreign citizens, including an unknown total number of Americans.
"First, we've got to get our Americans back -- never leave an American behind," McCarthy said.
That would presumably include not just missions to rescue and/or recover the remains of U.S. citizens taken captive by Hamas, but also the evacuation of any and all Americans in Israel or the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank who wished to flee from the sudden and unexpected war.
According to CNN, it has been confirmed that at least 11 American citizens were killed during Saturday's horrific events that involved thousands of Hamas terrorists invading Israel in a coordinated manner to kill or capture as many innocent civilians and soldiers as possible before returning to Gaza.
In addition to those Americans who were killed -- and that toll will likely rise as more bodies are discovered and identified -- there is also an unspecified or unknown number of Americans who remain unaccounted for and may have been kidnapped as hostages by Hamas.
Some of those individuals were simply Americans visiting Israel while others lived in the Jewish nation with family as dual American-Israeli citizens or were American-Palestinian citizens who lived in or were visiting Gaza and the West Bank.
Unfortunately, it is decidedly unclear whether President Joe Biden and his administration will actually undertake any such risky rescue missions for American hostages or even facilitate the mass evacuation of Americans who wish to leave the conflict zone as soon as possible.
