President Donald Trump told a delegation of freed Israeli hostages in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he was confident that the remaining hostages in Gaza would be released.
“We’ll get them out,” Trump told the hostages, who traveled to the United States from Israel to advocate for the 59 hostages still in captivity after a temporary ceasefire.
Arranged in a row before him, the hostages praised the new president and told him that they believed that he holds special power to free the remaining hostages.
“My family and I, myself, we believe that you have been sent by God to release them,” said Omer Shem Tov, freed on Feb. 22, according to video from the meeting published by an Israeli journalist. “You’ve really helped. You have the power to do it.”
Naama Levy, a soldier freed early in the ceasefire, added, “You were our hope while we were there. Now you are their hope.”
“So you didn’t think until I came along, you didn’t think you were going to get out?” Trump asked. Many of the hostages said, “No.”
Levy added, “Once you were elected, we heard that you wanted to do everything to make a deal as soon as possible.”
“Well, we said, ‘You better let us have those people back,'” Trump said, alluding to his public threat in December that there would be “all hell to pay” if a ceasefire was not reached by his inauguration on Jan. 20. “‘You better let them out.’ We did say that, and something happened, right? Now we’ve got to get the rest out.”
Eli Sharabi, who was released, emaciated, on Feb. 7 and found out then that his wife, daughters and brother had all been killed, said, “Please do it again. Please.”
Trump responded, “We’re working on it very hard.” Earlier Wednesday, reports emerged that Trump administration officials have negotiated directly with Hamas, in a break from past protocol, to negotiate on behalf of the hostages.
Each of the freed hostages then shook Trump’s hand, as he said to several, “We’ll get them out.”
To Wenkert, the final hostage to shake his hand, he pointed and said, “You’ve got a good future.”
The hostages presented Trump with a golden plaque inscribed with a famous line from the Talmud that means, “Whoever saves a single life, it is as though he has saved a whole world.” The plaque used a formulation that appeared in the Oscar-winning movie “Schindler’s List,” when a Holocaust survivor tells rescuer Oskar Schindler: “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”
The other former hostages on the delegation were Doron Steinbrecher; Yair Horn, who wore a shirt featuring his brother Eitan, who remains a hostage; and Keith and Aviva Siegel, who were released separately 15 months apart. Keith Siegel, who was born and raised in North Carolina, was one of two Americans released during the current ceasefire. Steinbrecher and the Siegels wore shirts featuring Gali and Ziv Berman, twin brothers from their kibbutz, Kfar Aza, who remain hostage. All of the men wore black suits.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, which expired this week, 33 hostages were released, mostly alive, and five others were freed outside the deal’s terms. Trump has said that he will respect whatever Israel decides to do about resuming the war.
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