Several top American officials spoke Saturday evening at the weekly rally for the release of the hostages held in Gaza, and were greeted with thunderous applause, as many hoped it marked the final such protest after more than two years, as hostages are expected to be returned by Monday under a US-brokered ceasefire deal signed on Thursday.

Over 500,000 people attended the demonstration, according to an unconfirmed claim by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which organized the gathering.

Taking center stage, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff estimated the number to be 100,000, saying: “I dreamed of this night for a long time. This is the most powerful sight. Hearts beating as one, gathered here in Tel Aviv for peace, for unity and for hope in this sacred place we call Hostages Square.”

“I only wish the president was here,” he said of US President Donald Trump, who had exerted immense pressure on Israel and Hamas to reach the agreement, and who was set to make a brief visit to the country on Monday.

The square was jam-packed with far more children in attendance than usual. On the adjacent Shaul HaMelech Street, police moved traffic-blocking trucks farther up the road to clear more space for the crowd overflowing from the square.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, also attended and spoke at the event. Witkoff and Kushner were given a hero’s welcome for their roles in securing the hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza, the first phase of which began Friday, marking a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.

With the start of the ceasefire, the remaining 48 hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours — by Monday — of whom 20 are believed to be alive. Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange, including 250 terror convicts serving life sentences.

Witkoff thanked Trump, Kushner, Arab and Muslim leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose name was met with loud boos from the crowd — hostage families, and the hostages themselves for their role in securing the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal.

“Tonight we celebrate something extraordinary, a moment that many thought was impossible. Yet here we stand, living proof that when courage meets conviction, miracles can happen. A peace born not out of politics, but out of courage, the courage of those who refuse to give up hope,” he said.

The special envoy said he wanted “to honor the people of Israel. Your strength, your resilience, your unwavering spirit through unimaginable pain and loss.”

“You’ve shown the world that peace is not weakness. It is the highest form of strength. Through heartbreak and fear, you never let go of the faith. Your courage and endurance inspired the world, and it was your belief, joined with the bold leadership of my friend and President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, that made this piece possible,” he said.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…,” he continued before being interrupted several times by a loud chorus of boos from the crowd that has been demonstrating against the premier for two years.

He then insisted on continuing: “I was in the trenches with the prime minister. Believe me, he was a very important part here. The prime minister and his staff, Ron Dermer, have both sacrificed so much for this country and devoted their lives to the service of Israel.”

He expressed deep gratitude to Trump,  whose name the crowd chanted repeatedly, “a man who is a humanitarian through and through, with an indomitable spirit, who once again proved that bold leadership and moral clarity can reshape history and change the world.”

“In the worst of times, he refused to accept the idea that peace in the Middle East was out of reach. He brought together nations once divided by generations of conflict and showed us that shared peace is stronger than shared pain… He showed the world that strength and peace go hand in hand. They are not opposites, they are partners.”

Witkoff continued by paying tributes to Arab and Muslim leaders, “all of whom played a critical and integral role” in the deal, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

“Thank you for showing that the future of this region can be built not on the ashes of old hatred, but on the promise of shared hope,” he said, to the audience’s cheers.

He also paid tribute to the hostages’ families, who “carried the moral weight of this nation” and whose “courage touched me in ways I have never been touched before in my life.”

“Your courage has moved this world. I say to the families: you have prayed through endless nights and never let the world forget who your loved ones are. And in this way, you honor and you bless them,” Witkoff added.

“To the hostages themselves, our brothers and sisters,” he said, “you are coming home.”

“Your endurance, your faith, your will to live, have been symbols of the human spirit that cannot ever be broken. Now, as you return to the embrace of your families and your nation, know that all of Israel and the entire world stands ready to welcome you home with open arms and endless love.”

He then addressed bereaved families, those “who have lost children who are not coming home, members of a very terrible club that I’m a member of myself. We remember the heroes and the innocent souls who are no longer with us, those who were taken from us on that terrible, tragic day, October 7, and those who have given their lives since then in defense of freedom and their nation, in defense of this country, Israel, in defense of peace. Their memory is a blessing. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

“This peace is their legacy,” he said. “It is a promise that their lives will not be remembered only in sorrow, but in the hope of a future without fear.”

“May God bless the hostages and their families as they return home,” Witkoff concluded. “May God bless the state of Israel. May God bless the United States of America. And may God bless Donald J. Trump, the greatest president the world has ever seen.”

While Trump wasn’t there in person, he was certainly in attendance at the protest in spirit.

“They say success has many fathers while failure is an orphan,” said Itzik Horn, whose son Eitan Horn is also slated to return after his other son, Iair, was released in February as part of the last deal.

“We’ll find the people responsible for the failure, but what’s certain is that this success has one father — President Trump,” he told the crowd.

“I hope that we too will have the privilege of leadership with bravery,” he said.

The crowd waved Israeli flags, yellow banners representing the hostages’ cause, and US flags, along with other tributes to the man many Israelis credit with making the deal possible.

Kushner followed Witkoff to address the rally, commending both the envoy and the president for their commitment to achieving the ceasefire deal.

“October 7 for me was a shattering day,” Kushner recalled. “Seeing these horrific, barbaric acts shocked me to my core… Since then, my heart has not been complete.”

He added that he felt obligated “to see the hostages come home, to see their families get the closure they deserve, and to end this nightmare. Also, to see the suffering end for the people in Gaza who, for most of them, were experiencing this through no fault of their own, other than being born into a situation that was horrific.”

“We’re not going to celebrate tonight. We’re going to celebrate on Monday,” he said to applause. “I couldn’t be more proud to see the way that the State of Israel and its people have carried themselves through this traumatic, unthinkable, horrific experience. Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, you chose to be exceptional.”

Kushner said he has “complete confidence… that what will rise from this trauma will be a level of greatness, a level of achievement, a level of impact on the world, a level of leadership that Israel has never seen.”

Finally, he said to cheers, “I just want to thank the amazing soldiers of the IDF. Without their heroism and brilliance and bravery, this deal would not have been possible.”

Ivanka Trump also gave a brief address in which she spoke on behalf of her father.

“The president wanted me to share, as he has with so many of you personally, that he sees you, he hears you, he stands with you always, always,” she said.

“The return of each hostage is not only a moment of homecoming and relief. It’s a triumph of faith, of courage, and of our shared humanity,” she says. “We pray, and so many people are working so hard, so hard to ensure this coming week is one of healing for you all.”

Amid the jubilation over the hostages’ return, some family members of those who were killed expressed concern that their loved ones’ remains would be properly identified.

Ruby Chen, whose soldier son Itay Chen’s body is slated for return in the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, told the crowd that while he was “happy for the hostage families who will hug their loved ones,” he also had “a feeling as though a 20-ton hammer suddenly fell on you, coming to terms with the reality of the loss of a son.”

“That’s the feeling that I and 27 other families of slain [hostages] share with almost 2,000 heroic families who didn’t want to be heroes, whose sacrifice of their loved ones lets an entire nation celebrate today,” he said at Hostages Square, referring to the families of those killed on October 7 and throughout the ensuing multifront war.

“This time, we won’t let the war end like Protective Edge, when the government of Israel decided it was unnecessary to fight for the slain abducted soldiers who were left behind,” said Chen, referring to the 2014 Gaza war, which ended with the remains of two Israeli soldiers still in Gaza.

The body of one of the slain soldiers, Oron Shaul, was retrieved by Israel earlier this year, while the other, Hadar Goldin, is slated for return in the current deal.

According to a Channel 12 report Saturday, Witkoff told the families of hostages on Friday that it may be very hard to locate some of the bodies of dead hostages.

While Hamas is obligated under the terms of the deal to return all 48 hostages, living and dead, by Monday, it has indicated that it may not be able to locate them all within this deadline, and Israel is aware of this.

The families were deeply troubled by Witkoff’s assessment and are pleading for Israel to do everything to return every hostage, the report said.

“The quiet that was bought through the non-return of Hadar and Oron led to October 7, and that must not happen again,” Chen continued. “So please… do you promise to fight with me until the last hostage?”

“Yes!” roared the crowd.

“This is not a happy occasion,” Horn continued. “This is the end of the worst day in the history of the country — Israeli citizens are returning to their land after being abandoned.”

“We’ll pray and promise — never again,” he said. “No more denigration of human life. No more abandonment.”

“The most important thing is that this will not end until the very last of the hostages comes home,” he said.

Concurrent to the mass protest in Tel Aviv and smaller protests throughout the country, protesters at the weekly rally for the hostages in Jerusalem read out the names of each of the hostages, living and dead, and punctuated each name with a call of “Returning!” to mark their upcoming release after 100 weeks of demonstrations.

Yael Engel Lichi, the aunt of teenager Ofir Engel, who was taken hostage from his girlfriend’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 and released in November 2023, spoke about those frightening days of his absence.

She also spoke about Yossi Sharabi, the father of Engel’s girlfriend, who was taken hostage and killed after 100 days of captivity, likely as a result of an IDF strike.

“We so hoped we would meet him,” said Engel Lichi. “We’re all waiting for the moment when we see the families hugging, and we will hold those burying their loved ones. We don’t forget anyone.”

Romi Efrat, 24, who was an officer serving in the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities (COGAT) at the Erez Crossing during the October 7 attack, spoke about her experience and about hostage Tamir Nimrodi.

She recalled gathering the personal items of the soldiers killed or abducted in the attack, and finding a note in Nimrodi’s handwriting that spoke to his soulful spirit, of helping others, of making good friends, of not offending anyone.

“Tamir, there is no day I don’t think about you and the others,” said Efrat. “We can all heal when they are all home.”

The mood was somber but hopeful as Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, stepped onstage to the applause of the crowd.

“You are not alone, we are with you,” called the crowd.

Rachel told the Jerusalem rally that her knees were buckling as she described receiving countless messages from parents of both living and dead hostages in recent days, as Israel prepares for their return.

“They know that Jon and I know what it is like to get your child returned in a bag,” she said.

“There is so much pain,” she continued, adding that these “days have been drenched in confusion.”

“There is a time to sob,” she said through tears, quoting the book of Ecclesiastes, which was read this past Shabbat during the Sukkot holiday.

She said she knows the country is desperate to be done with this chapter, “but we are not done yet until they are all home.”

“I don’t truly feel comfortable speaking yet, assuming this is over, but it’s said this could be the last rally for the hostages,” said Jon.

He thanked top IDF negotiator Nitsan Alon, and the IDF soldiers who he said would stop the family in the street to tell them they were fighting to bring the hostages home, those who lost their sons in battle, and wounded soldiers.

He thanked medical professionals and educators for navigating the last two years as they did, Trump for “strong-arming the deal down the throats of the decision makers” in this region, and urged him to continue doing so, and the masses who refused to be quiet.

“You caused this deal to happen,” said Polin, addressing the crowd.