In the wake of a disturbing video that surfaced over the weekend showing Israeli hostage Evyatar David, who appeared severely gaunt and emaciated, being forced to dig an apparent grave inside a dark tunnel in Gaza, renewed calls for a rapid hostage deal reverberated across Israel. President Trump has signaled that he wants to help broker a comprehensive, non-staged deal to end the war between Israel and Hamas and secure release of the remaining hostages.

On Saturday, a rally in Israel was held in support of the hostages after the video was circulated online. Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of 20 remaining Israeli hostages who are thought to still be alive, remarked, “Our brothers are turning into skin and bones at this very moment.”

That same day, White House envoy Steve Witkoff held a two-hour meeting in Tel Aviv with “dozens of families of hostages held by Hamas.” In a shift in messaging from previous months, Witkoff stated, “President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once — no piecemeal deals. That doesn’t work. Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time. ... We think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful, and we have a plan around it.”

Meanwhile, a group of over 600 former Israeli security officials sent a letter to Trump on Sunday urging the president to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza in order to secure the release of the hostages. “The IDF has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas’ military formations and governance,” the letter said. “The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all hostages home. … Our hostages can’t wait.”

Senior Israeli officials say that they have offered a deal to Hamas multiple times over the last several months but have been consistently rebuffed by the terrorist group, who instigated the war after invading the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, murdering over 1,200 Israelis and taking over 250 hostages. According to Axios, one official and two other sources say that a “partial deal for a 60-day ceasefire in return for the release of 10 live hostages and 18 deceased hostages is still on the table.”

As for Witkoff, he told the hostages’ families on Saturday that any deal to end the war in Gaza must include the demilitarization of Hamas. “Hamas has said it is prepared to demilitarize. But even over and above that, multiple Arab governments are now demanding that Hamas demilitarizes,” he stated. “So we are very, very close to a solution around this war.” But in response, Hamas reportedly insisted that the only way that they would disarm would be if an independent Palestinian state was formed with Jerusalem as its capital.

U.S. lawmakers like Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) say they have confidence that President Trump will figure out a way to resolve the crisis. “Donald Trump is the peacemaker in chief,” he told “Washington Watch” Friday. “He wants to see peace in Gaza. He wants to see peace in the Middle East. He has worked diligently on that. However, it’s got to be enforceable, and it’s got to make sure that Israel is safe. That’s two requirements that we won’t budge on.”

Carter went on to emphasize that a “two-state solution” is not a workable way to achieve peace. “I’m not in favor of that. … President Trump wants an enforceable peace in Gaza that is going to keep Israel safe, and until we get those hostages released and until we get them returned and get the bodies of the two American hostages that were taken, we’re not going to be able to achieve that peace.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed further confidence over the weekend that under the Trump administration, America would continue to stand with Israel to bring about a peaceful resolution to the war.

“I think at the end of the day, good is going to triumph over evil,” he observed during “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “This is going to be civilization over barbarism, as Prime Minister Netanyahu likes to say, and the good will prevail in the end. But America is going to stand with Israel. We have to. I think the president has resolved to do that. He’s trying to do everything he can to forge the peace over there and bring the conflict to an end, and that’s America’s role here, and we have to do that. Not boots on the ground, not interventionism, but trying to broker the peace. We’re really the force that can help make that happen, and we have to do it.”