Family of freed hostage Keith Siegel says there were ‘moments when he lost all hope’
Aviva Siegel, who was also a captive, tearfully informed her husband that his mother died, recounts being frightened by how thin he was upon return: ‘He didn’t look like Keith’
After 484 days in Hamas captivity, Keith Siegel’s first question as he boarded the helicopter back home was whether his mother was still alive.
“When his mother passed away [in December], I told everyone that I don’t want and can’t be the one to tell him,” his wife Aviva Siegel told Channel 12 news.
“I couldn’t tell him,” she said. “I just choked and started tearing up. And he understood, and said: ‘So she’s gone.'”
The Israeli-American Keith Siegel, 65, was released from the Gaza Strip last Saturday, along with two other Israelis, in the fourth hostage release of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase.
His captors forced him to write them a thank-you letter, telling him what to say in it. “He said: Fine, whatever, I’ll write it,” said Aviva. “When you’re in survival mode — as I know because I was there — you’re always thinking: How can I better survive?”
The couple was abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and abduct 251, sparking the war in Gaza.
Aviva was released during the hostage release and ceasefire agreement in November 2023, after 51 days in captivity, and dedicated herself to her husband’s release.
“It’s crazy to be on the other side,” she said after learning that Keith was slated for release.
Only when she returned did Aviva learn that her son Shai survived the Hamas onslaught. When Keith was released, Aviva was anxious to know if he was aware that Shai was alive.
“On some day in February,” Keith’s captors let him listen to the radio, said Aviva, and he happened to hear their daughter Ilan talk about her brother surviving the massacre in Kfar Aza.
“If he hadn’t heard it in February, he wouldn’t have known until now,” said Aviva.
She said Keith was “so, so thrilled” to hear Ilan on the radio.
Their other daughter, Shir, told Channel 12 that Keith remembered every detail of the broadcast: “He said to me, ‘Isn’t it correct that on the 205th day, at 2:40 p.m., on such and such a radio station you and you stood outside so and so’s home…’ He remembers things. These were his lifelines.”
Until her return to Israel, Aviva was held together with Keith, along with Amit Soussana, who was also freed in November 2023, and female captive soldiers Liri Albag and Agam Berger, who were released in the current deal.
According to Aviva, she and Albag developed a special relationship in captivity.
Aviva recounted how her husband had fallen into a deep depression in captivity when Albag “looked at him and said, ‘Keith, I’m worried for you, come back to us.’ And she managed to get him out of the depression after I was unsuccessful.”
Aviva said she was astounded by how Albag would handle the captors. “I would always ask her: ‘How? How are you able to connect with the terrorists in that way?’ And Liri said: ‘It’s just a game, and I know that I need to play the game.'”
“I told her: ‘I can’t, I just can’t,’ and she — she just has superpowers,” said Aviva.
When they met at the hospital in Israel, she embraced Albag — who other freed hostages have also praised for her conduct in captivity — thrilled that the young woman could finally take time for self-care. “I couldn’t stop smiling,” said Aviva.
‘He knew any given moment could be his last’
According to the Channel 12 report, Keith Siegel’s conditions in captivity worsened after the November 2023 deal.
His daughter Shir told the network that “part of the time he was alone, and part of the time there were other hostages.”
Keith’s captors, she said, “constantly made him think he could have been released but that [Israel is] choosing not to or doing too little to bring him home.”
“He feels he could have been here for a long time, and I think it’s extremely difficult for him,” she said. “There were moments when he lost all hope.”
“There were times that he would even kind of say goodbye,” added Shir. “He knew any given moment could be his last.”
When Keith returned, he was visibly malnourished.
“He didn’t look like Keith,” said Aviva. “He looked very unwell, and I was frightened.”
“He lost dozens of kilograms,” added Shir, and “was held in places unfit for humans.”
“Not places — he was put in conditions unfit for humans,” Aviva said. “In the most extreme conditions there are.”
Keith, a vegetarian, would sometimes have to eat meat to survive because that was the only thing available. “He describes it as a very, very difficult experience,” his daughter told Chanel 12.
“It’s no coincidence that one of the first things he said when he returned was: ‘I’m vegan,'” said Shir. “For him, it’s the realization that he’s finally in control — no one will shove anything at him, no one will decide for him, and he’s free and independent to decide he’s a vegan and will still have what to eat.”
She told Channel 12 that her father saw sunlight only rarely while in captivity. Aviva said that in one of the homes where Keith was held, “there was a window that was very high up, that you really needed to strain to see through — I think they may have even used a stool or something like that — and he asked to see the light of day, just to stand and look at the sky.”
‘Feels at home’
Upon his return, Keith expressed a desire to visit Kfar Aza. The kibbutz has been devastated, and virtually all its structures have been slated for renovation or demolition. Out of 1,000 residents, 62 were killed, and some 20 were kidnapped during the Hamas onslaught.
“I haven’t been there since then,” said Aviva. “Don’t want to be there.” Keith was shocked that the family was no longer living there, she added.
Shir was bemused by the things that concerned her father: “He asked about the vinyl records at home… what the house looks like, who watered the plants in the garden. All sorts of things that are like — what, how is this what bothers you right now?”
On his third day back, Keith’s family took him to the beach.
“Keith is enchanted by his ability to breathe fresh air, be next to the sea of the Land of Israel, his [sea],” said Aviva. “He feels at home here.”
