U.S. President Donald Trump has invited all 20 Israeli hostages freed last month from Hamas captivity to the White House and will dispatch a special aircraft to bring them directly to Washington, a senior White House official said Thursday.
The meeting is scheduled for November 20, after which the group is also expected to travel to Miami to meet with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Trump speaks with 60 Minutes
(Video: Courtesy of yes)
The 20 individuals invited to the White House were released on October 13 after more than two years in captivity, under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered primarily by the United States. They include Eitan Mor, Gali Berman and his brother Ziv Berman, Alon Ohel, Omri Miran, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Matan Angerst, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Evyatar David, Ariel Cunio and his brother David Cunio, Segev Kalfon, Eitan Horn, Matan Zangauker, Nimrod Cohen, Rom Braslavski, Bar Kupershtein and Maxim Herkin.
This will not be the first time Trump meets with released hostages. In recent months, he has held multiple White House meetings with survivors of Hamas captivity. In September, he hosted hostage survivor Ohad Ben Ami and his wife Raz. In March, he welcomed a delegation that included former captives Noa Argamani, Doron Steinbrecher, Eli Sharabi, Naama Levy, Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov and Keith and Aviva Siegel. Trump has also met twice with Edan Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen released by Hamas in May as a gesture to the Trump administration.
In a recent interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Trump said he had to “push” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach the ceasefire deal that led to the hostages’ release. Asked whether he could similarly press the Israeli prime minister to recognize a Palestinian state like he pressured him to apologize to Qatar for Israel's failed strike on Hamas leadership in Doha in September, Trump replied: “I worked very well with him. I had to push him a little bit one way or the other. I think I did a great job in pushing him... I didn’t like certain things that he did, [but] we knocked the hell out of Iran and that was time to stop, and we stopped."
Since October 13, Hamas has also returned the bodies of 22 hostages killed in captivity. The latest, Joshua Luito Mollel of Tanzania, was repatriated to Israel on Wednesday. Mollel, 21, was murdered during the October 7 attack at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Six deceased hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, five of them Israeli: Hadar Goldin, Dror Or, Meni Godard, Ran Gvili and Lior Rudaeff. The sixth is a foreign national, Sudhtisak Rinthalak.