Trump was ‘sent by God’: Former Israeli hostages hope US president can advance stuck hostage talks again

Israel will not agree to a hostage deal that would enable Hamas to survive and rebuild, an anonymous “political source” told Israeli media on Monday, as former hostages and families of those remaining in captivity continue to demand their release and, again, turned to U.S. President Donald Trump for help.

The official’s statement came in response to several recent reports indicating that Hamas is now seeking a ceasefire of several years in return for the release of the remaining 59 Israeli hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

“Ideas are being floated by some Arab countries, such as a 5-year cessation of the war. There is no chance that we will agree to a truce with Hamas that will only allow it to rearm itself, recover, and continue its war on the State of Israel with greater intensity,” the source said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticized the anonymous statement, claiming it proved that the Israeli government has no plan to free the hostages.

The forum charged that the political leadership tries to avoid, “at all costs,” presenting a plan of action for the hostages’ release, while continuously declaring what it isn’t willing to do.

“On that occasion, we would like to thank the ‘senior political figure’ if he would be willing to meet with the families of the hostages and present to them the state of the negotiations, not through the media,” the Forum added.

The sporadic media briefings by senior “political” or “diplomatic” sources are widely believed to come either directly from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or from his close confidantes and aides.

The Prime Minister’s Office also stated on Monday that the government’s hostage coordinator, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch held a briefing for ambassadors and representatives of countries whose citizens have been kidnapped by Hamas.

“The meeting presented the situation, reviewed the negotiation efforts, and raised issues that require coordination and cooperation in efforts to return all the kidnapped,” the PMO said.

Amid the once again stalled hostage negotiations, several former hostages held a press conference on Tuesday, in English, to ask for Trump’s intervention on behalf of the remaining hostages.

Omer Shem Tov, who spent 505 days in captivity, recounted his meeting with Trump in the White House following his release: “I told him then, and I believe it with all my heart – he was sent by God to help save us. Because of his leadership, because he made hostages a real priority, I was able to come home to my family.”

Shem Tov asked Trump, “Do it again. Use every tool, with everything you have, bring the rest back. Every day matters. Every life matters. Even for those of us who made it home, the feeling can never be complete while others are still left behind.”

US-Israeli Keith Siegel said he is “eternally thankful to President Trump for prioritizing the hostage crisis since day one of his presidency, and bringing me and so many others home.”

Siegel also said he was “constantly” thinking of those left behind, including the twins Gali and Ziv Berman, who “have been part of our lives since they were little boys,” IDF soldier Matan Angrest, and Omri Miran.

Siegel said they “have been held in captivity for 18 agonizing months, over 570 days ripped away from their families, their dreams and their lives. Every second of every day, I’m reminded that we cannot truly be free while our people remain in captivity.”

He also vividly described “the heavy burden of knowing what those still in captivity endure every single day.”

“I survived horrors I could never have imagined,” Siegel said, recounting “starvation, dehydration, relentless humiliation. I witnessed sexual assault, trapped 130 feet underground in suffocating tunnels. I saw acts of medieval torture that still haunt me.”

Naama Levy, an IDF observation soldier kidnapped from the Nahal Oz IDF base said she saw her friends and comrades be “brutally murdered before my very eyes” before she was “dragged violently as the entire world watched, thrown into the back of a terrorist jeep, treated not as a human being, but as [a] trophy.”

She also met Trump in the White House and thanked him for his efforts: “We the survivors, know you are a decisive and irreplaceable force saving lives,” says Levy. “There is no greater achievement, but the work is not yet done.”