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‘Part of me is still there’: Freed hostage Keith Siegel recounts the horrors of captivity in Gaza

Siegel was kidnapped from his home in Kfar Aza with his wife, Aviva, during Hamas’s October 7 attack. She was released during a brief truce in 2023, but he remained in captivity until January 2025.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who was held captive by Hamas for nearly 16 months, appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to support a ceasefire agreement that would secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Siegel was kidnapped from his home in Kfar Aza with his wife, Aviva, during Hamas’s October 7 attack. She was released during a brief truce in 2023, but he remained in captivity until January 2025. “I came here today to try and convey just how hard it was there — and how much worse it still is for the 50 who are left,” Siegel told the committee. “They’ve been in this nightmare for 641 days. The suffering is beyond what words can describe.”

Sitting beside Lishai Miran, whose husband Omri is still being held in Gaza, Siegel described shared moments of captivity. “Omri has a wife and two little girls. Being ripped from them is torture in itself,” he said. He recounted threats of execution, physical abuse, and psychological torment. “I had a gun to my head. I saw other hostages — men and women — brutalized and threatened with death. One woman was tortured so badly they stuck a sharp rod into her forehead.”

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Siegel said his memories still haunt him. “I might be home physically, but part of me is still down there — with Omri, with Gali and Ziv Berman, who were hurt and separated. Their father Doron is seriously ill.”

Anat Angrest, whose injured son Matan remains in Hamas custody, said he nearly died in a tunnel. “They only kept him alive because he was a soldier,” she said.

Lavi-Miran added, “We just lost five more soldiers. If we had a ceasefire, they’d be alive. We can’t take any more. My daughter turns four this month. Don’t make her spend another birthday without her father.”