Released captive Aviva Siegel to PM: Stop treating hostage talks ‘as if they are a children’s game’

Freed hostage Aviva Siegel speaks at weekly rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on March 30, 2024. (YouTube screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Freed hostage Aviva Siegel speaks at weekly rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on March 30, 2024. (YouTube screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Freed hostage Aviva Siegel is calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the government to stop treating hostage negotiations “as if they are a children’s game” at this week’s rally in Tel Aviv organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“You cannot bring back the delegation from Qatar without a deal,” she says onstage, referring to ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha.

“Do you hear me Bibi? I don’t know if my husband is alive. Stop talking about victory, stop talking about military pressure. Nothing will work. Nothing has worked until now. They’re dying there every day,” she continues.

Her husband, Keith Siegel, remains in Hamas captivity. He is one of 130 hostages who have remained captive in the Strip for 176 days.

“There is no feeling more difficult than that I can’t be there for him, for Keith. At the moment he needs me most, I’m not there, and I can’t do anything. I feel like someone who wanders the world empty inside, I am broken on the inside. I’m asking you all, how am I supposed to live like this?” she says to the crowd.

Siegel, who was freed amid a truce deal with Hamas that saw dozens of Israeli hostages released, recalls her harrowing time spent in Hamas captivity.

“When I was in Gaza, it took me a long time to realize that I was a hostage… The moment they grabbed me by the hair and pushed Keith onto the ground, I understood that I didn’t have the right to decide anything,” she says.

The rally is taking place only a couple hours after a group of families under the banner of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum spoke to the press outside the Kirya military base, publicly denouncing Netanyahu’s conduct toward negotiations as “criminal” and urging his ouster.

Most Popular