Emily Damari said to have asked Hamas captors to release Keith Siegel, 65, before her

Siegel, slated for release later in first phase, is believed in worse shape; his daughter Shir extols Damari, who was shot in hand when abducted, as ‘once-in-a-generation friend’

Captivity survivor Emily Damari, left, and hostage Kieth Siegel. (Courtesy)
Captivity survivor Emily Damari, left, and hostage Kieth Siegel. (Courtesy)

Emily Damari, who was released by Hamas on Sunday, had asked her captors to first free Keith Siegel, father of her close friend Shir Siegel, Channel 12 reported Friday, citing Damari’s conversations with friends.

Keith Siegel, a 65-year-old US native, is believed to be in worse shape than Damari, a 28-year-old dual British-Israel citizen. He is slated to be released later in the 42-day first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, which requires Hamas to release 33 women, children, men aged 50 and over, and ill and wounded men.

Damari was one of the first three women to be released, followed by four female soldiers on Saturday — a breach of the agreement since two civilian women and two children remain in captivity.

Damari was shot by Hamas gunmen when she was abducted from her home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza and lost two fingers. The gunmen who burst into her home shot her dog, she reportedly told her family and friends, and she was hit, too, as she tried to comfort her dying pet.

Mandy Damari (left) and her daughter, released hostage Emily Damari, on January 21, 2025. (Mandy Damari/X)

Responding to the report of Damari’s request, Shir Siegel posted on Instagram: “No matter how much I’ve tried, and will keep on trying, to describe Emily Damari, I’ll probably fail.”

“I have a once-in-a-generation friend,” she wrote. “Maybe now that she’s here you’ll understand what I haven’t managed, and won’t manage, to explain.”

“I’ll never understand how, of all the people in the world, I had the privilege of being your friend from age 0,” she continued.

Shir Siegel, whose father Keith is held hostage in Gaza, speaks at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, December 25, 2024. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Damari and Shir Siegel grew up together in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border. The community was ravaged on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Of Kfar Aza’s roughly 1,000 residents, 62 were killed and 19 taken hostage. Among the hostages were Aviva Siegel, Keith’s wife and Shir’s mother, who was released as part of the weeklong truce and hostage deal in November 2023.

(L-R): Lee Siegel, brother of hostage Keith Siegel, then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, captivity survivor Aviva Siegel, and her daughter Shir Siegel, pose for a photo on May 1, 2024 (Courtesy)

It is believed that 91 of the hostages kidnapped in the Hamas onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

The terror group released 105 civilians during the November 2023 truce, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.

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