‘We owe our lives to you’: Former Gaza hostages implore Trump to help free the rest

‘You saved the lives of 33 hostages,’ Israeli-American Keith Siegel tells president at DC event; Trump says Hamas is a ‘disaster,’ what hostages endured is ‘horrible’

By: TOI Staff – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

US President Donald Trump honored freed captives Iair Horn, Keith Siegel and Aviva Siegel during an event in Washington Tuesday, inviting them onstage, where the captives thanked the president for his efforts to bring them home.

“Hamas is just a disaster, their level of hatred,” Trump told the National Republican Congressional Committee, calling the three former hostages “brave souls.”

“These people [the ex-captives] — what they had to go through… is just horrible,” he added, mentioning a group of hostages released from Hamas captivity whom he recently hosted in the Oval Office.

After greeting the trio, Trump gestured them to the podium, leading the crowd in a round of applause as they reached the stage.

“President Trump, you saved my life. You saved the lives of 33 hostages,” Israeli-American Keith Siegel told the president, referring to those freed during the first stage of the ceasefire and hostage release deal that lapsed last month. “You set the hostage crisis at the highest priority. You got 33 of us home alive. We all owe our lives to you.”

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