With several former Israeli hostages in the audience, US President Donald Trump briefly highlighted his efforts to secure the release of captives from Gaza during an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

“In the Middle East, we are bringing back our hostages from Gaza,” Trump said.

After considerable anticipation in Israel, that ended up being his only remark on the issue in the entire speech, which, at just over an hour and 40 minutes, set a record for the longest presidential address to a joint session of Congress.

While a handful of individuals in the audience received personal shout-outs from Trump throughout the speech, none of the former hostages — among whom was US-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel — enjoyed such attention.

Siegel’s wife, Aviva, was spotted in the House gallery, as were fellow former hostages Noa Argamani and Iair Horn, along with Ronen Neutra, the father of slain American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra. Each member of the group was wearing a yellow scarf symbolizing the plight of the captives in Gaza.

On Sunday, Sharon Sharabi announced that the recently released hostage Eli Sharabi, his brother, would be departing for Washington the next day to meet with Trump, who had been shown an interview Sharabi gave last week about the difficult conditions of his captivity.

The Hostage Family Forum said that Sharabi, along with fellow former hostages Doron Steinbrecher, Naama Levy, Omer Shem Tov, Horn and both Siegels, would be meeting with Trump administration officials, without specifying whether the president himself would be among them.

Hostage families have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stick to the agreement that he signed in January, rejecting his efforts to rework the deal rather than proceed with its second phase, which was supposed to start on Sunday. The delegation of hostages is expected to stress this message during their meetings in Washington this week.

Trump was instrumental in bringing the hostage deal across the finish line after many months of dragged-out negotiations under the previous administration. Diplomats from Arab mediating countries have told The Times of Israel that Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff managed........

© The Times of Israel