OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:40 PM – Friday, November 21, 2025
President Donald Trump welcomed more than a dozen freed Israeli hostages and their families to the White House on Thursday, praising them as brave “heroes.”
“You’re not a hostage anymore,” Trump said in remarks delivered from the State Dining Room. “Today, you’re heroes.”
The visit came less than a month after Hamas released the final living hostages held in Gaza, following the implementation of a cease-fire agreement brokered by Trump and other U.S. officials.
Many of those gathered at the White House this week were among the last to be freed, emerging after 738 days in captivity.
“It’s an honor to get to know all of you,” the president told them at the closed-press event, according to clips shared by White House aide Margo Martin. “We love you all, and our country loves you all,” he added.
According to the Jerusalem Post outlet, the former hostages who met with Trump and senior administration officials included Matan Angrest, Omri Miran, Bar Kuperstein, Nimrod Cohen, Ziv and Gali Berman, Ariel and David Kunio, Matan Zangauker, Ilana Gritzewsky, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Segev Kalfon, Evyatar David, Eitan and Iair Horn, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Avinatan Or, Noa Argamani, Eitan Mor, and Elkana Bohbot.
At one point, Trump singled out the “toughness” of Angrest, who endured brutal beatings due to his service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“He went through hell,” Trump said of the freed soldier. “Matan never broke, and today he’s a living testimony to the toughness, heart, and faith of the Jewish people. You’re a great inspiration to everybody, whether you’re Jewish or not.”
The U.S. Commander-in-Chief also presented each former hostage with a presidential challenge coin.
“These are super coins,” the president said while grinning.
Additionally, twins Gali and Ziv Berman gave Trump a mezuzah — a parchment inscribed with Torah verses — that had miraculously survived Hamas’ attack on their home on October 7, 2023.
“This mezuzah was lovingly removed from the door of Gali’s room, in our home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a community that endured unimaginable horrors on October 7, 2023,” the twins wrote in a note to Trump, according to the Jerusalem Post. “The mezuzah survived. Gali survived. And now, this sacred item survived.”
“Out of deep respect and heartfelt gratitude, we present you with a small yet powerful symbol of protection and faith, drawn from the ruins of tragedy, as a gesture of honor and appreciation for your efforts in securing the return of the hostages.”
In a social media post, the former hostages emphasized that “the struggle is not over yet.”
“There are other families who are still experiencing the pain that our families experienced, it is not over until everyone returns,” one of them said, referring to the remains of three hostages that Hamas has not yet returned to Israel.
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