U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza in Tel Aviv on Saturday, as concerns for the captives' survival intensified nearly 22 months into the war.
The families of the hostages were protesting in Tel Aviv, urging Israel's government to push harder for the release of their loved ones. Witkoff, who was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance, joined them for a closed meeting, News.Az reports citing CBS news.
Videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving as families chanted "Bring them home!" and "We need your help."
The Hostages of Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting, which came a week after Witkoff quit ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas' intransigence and pledging to find other ways to free the hostages and make Gaza safe.
After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment 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 said in the meeting, according to the Forum.
Of the 251 hostages who were abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, around 20 are believed to be alive in Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, released separate videos of individual hostages this week, triggering outrage among hostage families and Israeli society.
Israeli media haven't broadcast the videos, calling them propaganda, but the family of 21-year-old Rom Braslavski allowed the release of a photograph showing him visibly emaciated in an unknown location. After viewing the video, Tami Braslavski, his mother, blamed top Israeli officials and demanded they meet with her.
"They broke my child, I want him home now," Braslavski told Ynet on Thursday. "Look at him: Thin, limp, crying. All his bones are out."
Protestors called on Israel's government to make a deal to end the war, imploring them to "stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels."
"Do the right thing and just do it now," said Lior Chorev, chief strategy officer of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Witkoff's meeting with the families came 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 in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
