US envoy Steve Witkoff met on Saturday with families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the main association representing those still held captive nearly 22 months after they were captured during Hamas attacks in October 2023.

A cellphone video posted online showed the Washington negotiator arriving at a Tel Aviv square that has become famous for protests by supporters of the hostages’ families, and was greeted with applause and pleas for help. The families chanted “Bring them home!” and “We need your help.” The Hostage and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting was underway, while other videos shared online showed Witkoff arriving.

The visit came a day after Witkoff visited a US-backed aid station in Gaza to inspect efforts to deliver food to the devastated Palestinian territory. Yotam Cohen, brother of 21-year-old hostage Nimrod Cohen, told AFP at the square: "The war must end. The Israeli government will not end it voluntarily. It has refused to do so. The Israeli government must be stopped." For us, for our soldiers, for our hostages, for our sons and for the future generations of everyone in the Middle East."

After the meeting, the Forum released a statement saying that Witkoff had given them a personal commitment that he and US President Donald Trump would work to return the remaining hostages. The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, brokered a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that would have allowed the hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid to flow more freely. But talks collapsed last month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under growing domestic pressure to find another way to secure the missing hostages, both dead and alive. It is also facing international calls to open Gaza's borders to more food aid after the UN and aid agencies warned that more than two million Palestinian civilians were facing starvation. | BGNES, AFP