U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday met with the households of Israeli hostages nonetheless held in Gaza in Tel Aviv as fears for the captives’ survival grew practically 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 house!” and “We want your assist.”
The Hostages of Lacking Households Discussion board confirmed the assembly, which got here a week after Witkoff give up ceasefire talks, blaming Hamas’ intransigence and pledging to search out different methods to free the hostages and make Gaza protected.
Hostages of Lacking Households Discussion board
After the assembly, the Discussion board 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 are going to get your kids house and maintain Hamas chargeable for any unhealthy acts on their half. We are going to do what’s proper for the Gazan folks,” Witkoff stated within the assembly, in response to the Discussion board.
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 would like him house now,” Braslavski instructed Ynet on Thursday. “Have a look at him: Skinny, limp, crying. All his bones are out.”
Protestors referred to as on Israel’s authorities to make a deal to finish the warfare, imploring them to “cease this nightmare and produce them out of the tunnels.”
“Do the precise factor and simply do it now,” stated 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 many privately run U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis’s distribution websites within the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah.
Steve Witkoff 
“We obtained briefings from (the IDF) and spoke to people on the bottom. GHF delivers multiple million meals a day, an unbelievable feat!” Huckabee stated in a social media publish.
The GHF’s 4 distribution websites, that are in zones managed by the Israeli navy, have develop into flashpoints of desperation, with mass crowds of individuals gathering outdoors however who’ve then come below 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 website, 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 regarded round and noticed others mendacity on the bottom bleeding.
“It is the identical every day episode,” Youssef stated.
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 stated “nothing (occurred) at or close to our websites.”
“We weren’t near them (the troops) and there was no risk,” Abed Salah, a person in his 30s who was among the many crowds near the GHF website close to Netzarim hall, stated. “I escaped loss of life miraculously.”
From Might 27 to July 31, 859 folks had been killed close to GHF websites, in response to a United Nations report printed Thursday. A whole bunch 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 stated it has solely fired warning pictures at individuals who strategy its forces, although on Friday stated it was working to make the routes below its management safer. Israel and GHF have stated 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 normal, in the meantime, warned Saturday that “fight will proceed with out relaxation” if hostages weren’t freed. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir stated Israel’s navy would adapt to “place Hamas below growing strain.”
The warfare in Gaza started when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing round 1,200 folks, principally civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed greater than 60,000 Palestinians, in response to Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians and operates below the Hamas authorities. The U.N. and different worldwide organizations see it as probably the most dependable supply of knowledge on casualties.
contributed to this report.
