Middle Eastern diplomacy is often defined by deadlock. But on Tuesday night, an unlikely cohort of awardees – the Israeli grassroots activists who advocated for the families of those taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and a Qatari minister who took part in the high-stakes negotiations to secure the hostages’ return – were brought together to celebrate one thing: the work that goes into the breakthroughs that bring hostages home. 

The event, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., was hosted by CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Margaret Brennan, with awards presented by the James Foley Foundation — a nonprofit honoring the legacy of James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in 2014. The foundation advocates for families of detainees and works to end what it describes as the “scourge of wrongful detention worldwide.”

Bar Ben-Yaakov and Matan Sivek, co-founders of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in the United States, jointly received the Humanitarian Award. The forum was established less than 24 hours after the Oct. 7, Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel and grew into a broad, nonpolitical network of volunteers, hostage families and professionals.

In her acceptance speech, Ben-Yaakov said that following the attacks, “it felt like there were only two options: either do something about it or go crazy.” 

“We just could not accept that the story we would tell our children is one where 251 people were simply left to die in the hands of Hamas,” Ben-Yaakov said. “We needed to be able to tell them [our children] a different story. That people showed up, that they refused to look away and that in the end they helped bring them home.”

She said that despite the two having “no formal role, no background in hostage advocacy and no network in the corridors of power,” they decided to get to work. 

“What began in that moment grew into a campaign, but from day one it was never ours,” Sivek said. “It belonged to the hostage families. They decided, we stayed behind the scenes – by design. We were creating the conditions for families to advocate with clarity and impact.” 

Sivek said he got involved in part because of his grandfather, Jacob Sivek, who survived the Holocaust. The elder Sivek attended Tuesday’s awards ceremony.

“After Oct. 7, I thought of him and his family living through World War II, left to their own devices. Who was advocating for them?” Sivek said as his grandfather stood up to applause from the room of attendees. “I knew – and we knew – that we were not going to be bystanders.” 

However, the road was long and often demoralizing. “During the campaign, most of the time, you feel like you’re failing,” Yaakov said. “Nothing moves. Everything depends on forces far beyond your control.”

“Throughout this turbulent road we held onto one goal,” she continued. “We had one image in front of our eyes and it was to witness the embrace – the precious moment when families are reunited and held in each other’s arms again. The renewed smiles, the tears of joy, the ability to see life in color again. That moment was the reason for everything we had done.”

Qatari Minister of State Mohammed Al-Khulaifi was also honored at the event, where he received the group’s 2026 American Hostage Freedom Award for his role in facilitating negotiations that contributed to the release of hostages in Gaza, as well as his efforts that have brought several other hostages and Americans home. 

Al-Khulaifi told the audience that “every negotiation, every sleepless night and every difficult decision is for one glorious moment when the phone finally rings and the voice on the other side says we are finally coming home.”

“Every person who walks away safe is the result of a deliberate effort, solid coordination and an unshakable commitment to the value of human life,” Al-Khulaifi continued. “There are long nights filled with uncertainty, decisions made with incomplete information, and moments where you hold your breath and simply hope that preparation meets opportunity, yet knowing this opportunity is only made possible through the work of creating an environment for dialogue and understanding.”

Al-Khulaifi spoke of his role in negotiations between the U.S., Israel and Hamas to free the hostages in Gaza. He said that the stories of several individuals, including Edan Alexander, an American Israeli who was held captive in Gaza, “remind me and my team why this work matters.” 

“Each case was difficult,” Al-Khulaifi said. “Each required trust, assistance and coordination across difficult circumstances, but all shared the same profound victory. The long awaited healing of broken families. Our collective efforts help us create breakthroughs every single day.”