“We don’t know how many more opportunities we will have to reunite hostages with their families,” said Jack Lew, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

At press time, scheduled talks to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal, set for Thursday, August 15, were seen as the last chance to secure the freedom of the 115 hostages, whom Hamas has held in Gaza for more than 300 days, the U.S., British and German envoys to Israel stated on Wednesday.

Jack Lew, Steffen Seibert and Simon Walters—the U.S., German and U.K. ambassadors to Israel respectively—spoke at a press conference at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s Tel Aviv headquarters.

“The meeting tomorrow is very important,” Lew said, alongside hostage families. “We don’t know how many more opportunities we will have to reunite hostages with their families and have a doorway to stability in the area.”

Walters said that London continues to support efforts to reach a hostage deal, warning that “there cannot be further delay.”

“The 15th of August is the time to achieve a deal,” he said. “We urge Iran to refrain from hurting the effort and they will pay a price if they harm the process.” Tehran has said it plans to attack Israel.

Seibert said that Thursday’s summit is “potentially decisive” for the fate of the captives, adding that the “eyes of millions” are on the Doha meeting. He also addressed the “unbearable” suffering of the families of the hostages.

Hamas “could have and should have returned the hostages a long time ago,” he said.

The German envoy called on all parties to refrain from actions that could jeopardize negotiations. He singled out Iran and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli national security minister, whose visit to the Temple Mount holy site on Tuesday was widely condemned by European nations and by the Biden administration.

Hostage families who spoke with JNS on the sidelines of the briefing shared the concerns for the fate of their loved ones.

“It’s terrifying to think that Evyatar could be the next one to be executed or accidentally bombarded,” said Ilay David, the brother of captive Evyatar David.

Evyatar and his best friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal were kidnapped at the site of the Nova festival. Terrorists murdered two of their other friends, Ron Zarfati and Idan Haramaty, on Oct. 7.

“It feels like everybody has different interests and it breaks me,” Ilay David said. “I don’t necessarily think that the deal will be settled tomorrow, but it will be another step towards bringing the hostages back home.”

“It’s a long and frustrating process, but I’m hopeful that we are moving towards victory, which to me means the return of the captives home,” he added.

David, who noted the latest Hamas claim that it executed one hostage and tortured two others in the Gaza Strip, said the past 10 months have been marked by Hamas’s psychological terror.

“I try to block out all the distractions. I don’t surf online so much,” he said. “I don’t use Telegram or any app where there is a possibility of fake news. I try to gain my knowledge only from official sources.”

David has been receiving updates from the Israeli military about Evyatar and believes he is still alive. “Sometimes, I try to imagine and want to believe that the hostages are even being fed well, because they are valuable bargaining chips,” he said.

Efrat Machikawa is the niece of Margalit Moses, 78, a cancer survivor who was freed from Gaza last November, and Gadi Moses, 79, who is chronically ill and remains in Hamas captivity.

“My son is a soldier in Gaza and my uncle is a hostage in Gaza. They are probably very close to one another,” Machikawa told JNS. “It’s very difficult. I haven’t slept for 10 months now.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a propaganda video of her uncle—who appeared alongside Elad Katzir, who was murdered in captivity—in December. Machikawa has not received any information on her uncle’s status since.

“We haven’t heard a word, but we hope that in this case, no news is good news,” she said. “We are so worried.”

“My hope is that tomorrow we will hear that we are starting to reverse the cycle to hope and redemption,” she added.

Following discussions at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Jerusalem reportedly decided to dispatch Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and IDF envoy Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon to Doha.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the departure of the Israeli delegation to Doha tomorrow, and the mandate to conduct the negotiations,” Netanyahu’s office stated on Wednesday evening.

It is unclear whether Hamas will participate in Thursday’s meeting.

The terrorist group said on Sunday that it will not attend the talks unless there is a “clear commitment” from Israel to approve the truce proposal that Hamas put forward in July in response to the U.S. outline.

Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesman at the U.S. State Department, told reporters on Tuesday that Qatar assured the Biden administration that it will “work to have Hamas represented” at Thursday’s summit.

Last week, U.S., Egyptian and Qatari leaders released a statement calling for an immediate conclusion to talks between Israel and Hamas.

“It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” they said. “The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal.”

The statement, signed by U.S. President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, called on both sides to resume urgent talks in Doha.

The statement referred to an Israeli proposal that Biden announced in May, which was to lead to a multi-phase deal that would halt hostilities and release the hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7, along with the release of an untold number of Palestinian terrorists held in Israel.

Washington has accused Hamas multiple times of failing to move forward. A senior Biden administration official said weeks ago that a deal was closer than it has been in months and that a framework had been agreed upon, with some details of the implementation still up in the air.

Originally from Casablanca, Morocco, Amelie Botbol made aliyah in 2014. She has a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in counterterrorism from Reichman University in Herzliya. Amelie specializes in the defense, cybersecurity and tech fields.

Akiva van Koningsveld is a content and engagement specialist at JNS.org.