Photo: Hostages of Missing Families Forum
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with the households of Israeli hostages nonetheless held in Gaza in Tel Aviv on Saturday, as issues for the captives’ survival intensified practically 22 months into the battle.
Videos shared on-line confirmed Witkoff arriving as households chanted “Bring them home!” and “We need your help.”
The Hostages of Missing Families Forum confirmed the assembly, which got here a week after Witkoff quit ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas’ intransigence and pledging to search out different methods to free the hostages and make Gaza protected.
After the assembly, the Forum launched an announcement saying that Witkoff had given them a private dedication that he and President Trump would work to return the remaining hostages.
“We will get your children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad acts on their part. We will do what’s right for the Gazan people,” Witkoff stated within the assembly, in response to the Forum.
Of the 251 hostages who had been kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, round 20 are believed to be alive in Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, launched separate movies of particular person hostages this week, triggering outrage amongst hostage households and Israeli society.
Israeli media have not broadcast the movies, calling them propaganda, however the household of 21-year-old Rom Braslavski allowed the discharge of {a photograph} displaying him visibly emaciated in an unknown location. After viewing the video, Tami Braslavski, his mom, blamed high Israeli officers and demanded they meet along with her.
“They broke my child, I want him home now,” Braslavski instructed Ynet on Thursday. “Look at him: Thin, limp, crying. All his bones are out.”
Protestors known as on Israel’s authorities to make a deal to finish the battle, imploring them to “stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels.”
“Do the right thing and just do it now,” stated Lior Chorev, chief technique officer of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Witkoff’s assembly with the households got here a day after he and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee toured one of the privately run U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites within the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah.
