U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met with the households of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza in Tel Aviv as fears for the captives’ survival grew almost 22 months into the warfare.
The households of the hostages had been protesting in Tel Aviv, urging Israel’s authorities to push more durable for the discharge of their family members. Witkoff, who was greeted with some applause and pleas for help, joined them for a closed assembly.
Movies shared on-line confirmed Witkoff arriving as households chanted “Carry them residence!” and “We want your assist.”
The Hostages of Lacking Households Discussion board confirmed the assembly, which got here a week after Witkoff quit ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas’ intransigence and pledging to seek out different methods to free the hostages and make Gaza secure.
Hostages of Lacking Households Discussion board
After the assembly, the Discussion board launched a press release saying that Witkoff had given them a private dedication that he and President Trump would work to return the remaining hostages.
“We are going to get your youngsters residence and maintain Hamas answerable for any unhealthy acts on their half. We are going to do what’s proper for the Gazan folks,” Witkoff mentioned within the assembly, in line with the Discussion board.
Michal Iluz, father of slain hostage Man Iluz, mentioned Witkoff spoke concerning the deal “that’s going to be all or nothing.”
“We instructed him that nothing isn’t okay for us,” Iluz mentioned.
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} exhibiting him visibly emaciated in an unknown location. After viewing the video, Tami Braslavski, his mom, blamed prime Israeli officers and demanded they meet along with her.
“They broke my little one, I need him residence now,” Braslavski instructed Ynet on Thursday. “Have a look at him: Skinny, limp, crying. All his bones are out.”
Protestors known as on Israel’s authorities to make a deal to finish the warfare, imploring them to “cease this nightmare and convey them out of the tunnels.”
One other video launched by Hamas confirmed hostage Evyatar David trying so skeletal his household mentioned they worry he solely has a number of days left to stay.
“Do the proper factor and simply do it now,” mentioned Lior Chorev, chief technique officer of the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board.
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.
Steve Witkoff 
“We obtained briefings from (the IDF) and spoke to of us on the bottom. GHF delivers a couple of million meals a day, an unbelievable feat!” Huckabee mentioned in a social media submit.
The GHF’s four distribution sites, that are in zones managed by the Israeli navy, have turn out to be flashpoints of desperation, with mass crowds of individuals gathering exterior however who’ve then come underneath hearth from Israeli forces or been trampled within the ensuing crush.
On Saturday, hospitals in Gaza reported the killing of greater than a dozen folks, eight of them food-seekers, by Israeli hearth.
Close to a GHF distribution web site, Yahia Youssef, who had come to hunt support Saturday morning, described a panicked scene now grimly acquainted. After serving to perform three folks wounded by gunshots, he instructed the Related Press he seemed round and noticed others mendacity on the bottom bleeding.
“It is the identical each day episode,” Youssef mentioned.
In response to questions on a number of eyewitness accounts of violence on the northernmost of the Israeli-backed American contractor’s 4 amenities, GHF mentioned “nothing (occurred) at or close to our websites.”
“We weren’t near them (the troops) and there was no menace,” Abed Salah, a person in his 30s who was among the many crowds near the GHF web site close to Netzarim hall, mentioned. “I escaped dying miraculously.”
From Could 27 to July 31, 859 folks had been killed close to GHF websites, in line with a United Nations report printed Thursday. Lots of extra have been killed alongside the routes of meals convoys.
GHF says its armed contractors have solely used pepper spray or fired warning pictures to forestall lethal crowding. Israel‘s navy has mentioned it has solely fired warning pictures at individuals who method its forces, although on Friday mentioned it was working to make the routes underneath its management safer. Israel and GHF have mentioned that the toll has been exaggerated.
Israel’s navy didn’t instantly reply to questions concerning the deaths close to the help websites. Its prime basic, in the meantime, warned Saturday that “fight will proceed with out relaxation” if hostages weren’t freed. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir mentioned Israel’s navy would adapt to “place Hamas underneath rising stress.”
The warfare in Gaza started when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing round 1,200 folks, largely civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, in line with Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians and operates underneath the Hamas authorities. The U.N. and different worldwide organizations see it as essentially the most dependable supply of information on casualties.
contributed to this report.
