US expects 4-year-old Israeli American hostage in Gaza will be released

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that he is “hopeful” that 4-year-old Israeli American hostage Abigail Idan will be released at some point, but he would not specify the timing of such a release.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sullivan told anchor Dana Bash that he has “reason to believe” that an American would be released later Sunday but would not say whether he expects them to be Idan.

“We are now hopeful that Abigail will be released [and] reunited with her family,” Sullivan said. “She turned four 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. 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,” he continued on CNN.

Sullivan told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that he would be prepared to speak publicly about Abigail when he gets more details on whether she will be part of the Sunday hostage release.

“I’m not in a position sitting here at this moment to confirm that, but I will tell you, Kristen, that this is unfolding as we speak,” he said. “And hopefully, literally any hour now, we will know which of the Americans is out. We have a sense of who it is, but I just am not in a position to confirm it because we want to make sure that the release goes off as indicated, as we expect. And at that point we’re — we’ll be prepared to speak to it — quite joyfully speak to it.”

Sullivan made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows to speak about the status of the hostages set to be released as part of the deal with Hamas and Israel, which involved Qatari and U.S. officials.

On whether the pause in fighting would be extended beyond the four days agreed upon in the initial deal, Sullivan said, “The ball is really in Hamas court.”

“If Hamas wants to see an extension of the pause and fighting, it can continue to release hostages. If it chooses not to release hostages, then the end of the pause is its responsibility, not Israel’s, because it is holding these hostages completely illegitimately and against all bounds of human decency,” Sullivan added on CNN, noting that part of the deal detailed that every additional 10 hostages that are released by Hamas would earn another day in the pause in fighting.