With the future of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the continued release of hostages in question, a group of former hostages and hostage family members pleaded with House members on Wednesday to help ensure that the hostage releases continue.

Several of the family members emphasized at a roundtable event organized by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and attended by numerous lawmakers from both sides of the aisle that the dire physical condition of the three hostages released last weekend underscores the urgency of freeing the remaining hostages.

Ilana Gritzewsky, a former hostage and the girlfriend of Matan Zangauker, who remains captive in Gaza, tearfully begged the lawmakers for their help, saying she’d promised her friends that she would do everything in her power to save Zangauker.

“Please help bring Matan home,” Gritzewsky said. “I can’t get my boyfriend [back] in a bag. I don’t want that. I want to be able to … get married, to have children … I want to be a baker again. I want to be able to try to rebuild a life after this hell. And the only way I can be able to do that is when all the hostages come home.”

Gritzewsky also told the harrowing story of her kidnapping from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, and the assault and physical and mental torture she faced at the hands of Hamas.

“On the first day, many people came to see me, to play mind games … One of them said to me I would never leave, that I was beautiful, that we were going to marry and have children. Even if there was a deal, I will not be released,” she recounted.

She said she’d been taken through the streets of Gaza with onlookers watching from their homes, kept in filthy conditions with almost no food or water by people who identified themselves as a math teacher and a lawyer and at one point held in a Gaza hospital. She said that she only found out weeks into her captivity that Zangauker was also a hostage, after she was reunited with other hostages from Nir Oz.

“I begged the terrorists to let me see him … The next day they told me I was leaving. I refused. I wanted to see Matan. I knew that if I would leave, my soul would remain in Gaza,” Gritzewsky said. “But they didn’t let me stay. So I left with a hole in my heart.”

Daniel Lifshitz, the grandson of hostage Oded Lifshitz and released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, said that time is running out for the hostages.

“My grandfather, like a cactus, has a lot of resilience,” Lifshitz said, referencing his grandparents’ cactus garden in Nir Oz. “And those hostages have resilience. But not much more. The time is gone, and we saw what happened on Saturday, and we see the situation of the hostages. My grandfather doesn’t have that time.”

He acknowledged that “painful concessions had to be made to bring the hostages back home,” but emphasized that “it’s a victory to the Western values to bring those hostages back home. That’s the most important thing.” He said that eliminating Hamas and cutting off its resources can come later, once all the hostages are freed.

Moshe Lavi, brother-in-law of hostage Omri Miran, asked the lawmakers to work to pressure mediators and stakeholders to “force Hamas to abide by the agreement, to understand that we now need to act fast” to save the remaining hostages and return the remains of the dead, so that their families can have peace.

“I implore you to keep pressuring everyone to make sure that people like Omri are not forgotten, that their stories are shared everywhere, that their beautiful souls are the ones that matter, so that everyone will receive the closure they need,” Lavi said. “I ask you to keep doing it so that this agreement will not fall apart.”

Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar David, emphasized that the first phase of the agreement will not free all of the hostages, and that efforts must be made to ensure everyone’s return.

“The recent release of hostages is proof that determined action makes a difference,” David said. “We’ve seen progress, and for that we are thankful. But we are not there yet. This first stage is a crucial step forward, but 76 hostages are still waiting in captivity and their return must remain a top priority. Every one of them has a family desperate to hold them again. Every one of them deserves to come home.”

Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American Omer Neutra, who was killed on Oct. 7 and whose body is being held by Hamas, said that the emaciated state in which the three hostages released by Hamas last weekend emerged from Gaza emphasizes the “urgent” need to ensure that the remaining hostages and the remains of killed Israelis are returned home.

“A deal was signed, but it is fragile, and only a first phase has been agreed to,” Neutra said. “We trust that President Trump and his team will make sure that the release continues. Among them, six Americans that need to come home, and everybody else. All the hostages must come home.”

Gal Dalal, brother of Guy Gilboa-Dalal and a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, said he’ll “never forget the sight of countless young people lying lifeless” at the festival.

“I couldn’t bear the thought that I had gone there for him, to watch over him and yet I left without him,” Dalal continued, referring to his brother. “Since then, my family, like so many others, are tormented by our imagination of what Guy is enduring. While Guy is subjected to physical and sexual abuse, we are also psychologically tortured by Hamas’ sick games.”

“No words can convey the urgency of freeing all hostages more powerfully than the images themselves of the recently freed hostages,” Dalal said.