US President Joe Biden promised to do “everything in his power” to free American citizens held hostage by Hamas in an interview, the first excerpt of which was broadcast on Friday by CBS, according to AFP.

Joe Biden held a remote conversation on Friday with the families of 14 American citizens, about whom the United States knows nothing almost a week after the Hamas attack on Israel, the White House announced, citing Agerpres.

According to the latest report, 27 Americans have been killed and others are being held hostage by the Palestinian Islamist group, but Washington has not yet said how many of the 14 missing are in that situation.

“We will do everything in our power to bring them home if we can find them,” Joe Biden said in a very brief excerpt broadcast by CBS.

The full interview is due to air on Sunday.

The families “need to know that the president of the United States is very concerned about what happened to them,” said the 80-year-old Democrat, who has emphatically assumed the role of Israel’s chief supporter.

What the Palestinian group did “is not even human behavior. It is pure barbarism,” Joe Biden said.

According to the Israeli army, at least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel since the start of hostilities, triggered by a bloody attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip on October 7.

According to Palestinian officials, 1,799 people, including 583 children, were killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said it was holding about 150 hostages. Thirteen of them, including foreigners, were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, a Palestinian Islamist group announced on Friday.