Witkoff meets with families of Israeli hostages to detail new ‘comprehensive’ plan to end war in Gaza, free remaining hostages

Families of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 demonstrate in Tel Aviv's 'Hostage' square during US envoy Steve Witkoff's visit on August 2, 2025. Witkoff met the families of hostages on August 2, according to the main association representing them, with a cellphone video posted online showing the Washington negotiator arriving at the square in Tel Aviv square that has become known for protests by supporters of the hostages' families, and being greeted with applause and pleas for help. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Families of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 demonstrate in Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostage’ square during US envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit on August 2, 2025. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:18 AM – Sunday, August 3, 2025

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, met with families of Israeli hostages on Saturday to announce he is working with the Israeli government on a “comprehensive” plan to end the war in Gaza and free the hostages.

Witkoff met with dozens of families in Tel Aviv to explain that President Donald Trump is seeking a “shift” in policy from attempting to secure a partial ceasefire deal, towards a comprehensive deal that would effectively end the war and secure the release of the hostages.

Videos posted on social media showcased Witkoff arriving while the families chanted “Bring them home!” and “We need your help.”

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“We have a very, very good plan that we’re working on collectively with the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu … for the reconstruction of Gaza. That effectively means the end of the war,” Witkoff told the families according to Reuters.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum confirmed the meeting with Witkoff, which followed the breakdown of ceasefire talks.

“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 reportedly stated during the meeting, according to the Forum.

In response to the new shift in approach, Hamas stated that it will only give up “armed resistance” on the condition that an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.

Hamas also recently released a grim video depicting 21-year-old Rom Braslavski in an emaciated state.

The Braslavski family shared a still photo from the video, demanding the Israeli government secure a deal to bring him home.

“They broke my child, I want him home now,” said Tami Braslavski, Rom Braslavski’s mother. “Look at him: Thin, limp, crying. All his bones are out.”

Roughly 20 of the hostages still in Hamas captivity are believed to be alive in Gaza tunnels, according to Israeli officials.

Witkoff’s meeting with the families came after he joined U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on a tour of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) aid distribution sites in Gaza amid reports of war crimes.

“We received briefings from [the IDF] and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!” Huckabee wrote in a social media post.

Meanwhile, retired U.S. Army Green Beret Anthony Aguilar worked as an armed contractor for the GHF and claimed that he witnessed war crimes against Palestinians seeking aid.

“I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians. I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces firing a main gun tank round from the Merkava tank into a crowd of people, destroying a car of civilians that were simply driving away from the site. I witnessed mortar rounds being fired at the words of people to keep them controlled,” Aguilar stated.

“My professional opinion on how the sites were established was what I would describe as amateur. Inexperienced, untrained, no idea of how to conduct operations of this magnitude. That would be my most benign assessment,” he continued.

“I would say that they’re criminal. In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population. An unarmed, starving population. I’ve never witnessed that in all of the places I’ve been deployed to war until I was in Gaza, at the hands of the IDF and U.S. contractors.”

Aguilar’s firsthand account was corroborated by a recent report from the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, citing IDF soldiers who labeled the GHF aid sites as “a killing field.”

“Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd–control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire,” an IDF soldier told Haaretz.

“We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces,” the soldier added. “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.”

A separate IDF soldier told the outlet, “We fired machine guns from tanks and threw grenades. There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog. It wasn’t intentional, but these things happen.”

Over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to reach aid at GHF sites since May 27th, according to the United Nations.

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