Ex-hostage recounts how news of Trump’s election victory brought him hope during hellish Hamas captivity.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
Former Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza thanked US President Donald Trump for his efforts to secure a hostage release deal, speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) annual president’s dinner on Tuesday evening.
“President Trump, I’m here, and I’m alive,” Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American hostage held by Hamas for nearly 16 months, said.
“You saved my life,” Siegel continued. “You set the hostage crisis at the highest priority… We all owe our lives to you.”
Siegel’s wife, Aviva, who was also kidnapped on thr October 7 Hamas onslaught and released in a December 2023 hostage deal after two months in captivity, thanked Trump for “bringing my Keith home.”
The last ex-hostage to speak, Iair Horn, said that he was “in hell for 498 days. I’ve been held in hell with Hamas terrorists.”
Horn’s brother, Eitan, was also abducted, was not released in the first phase of the January 2025 hostage deal.
Eitan Horn remains in captivity, with Hamas releasing a video of the tearful goodbye between the two brothers at the time of Iair Horn’s release.
Horn described feeling optimistic for the first time during his captivity after learning that Trump had won the 2024 American presidential election.
“When we heard President Trump get elected — we knew, we knew,” Horn said. “That is now someone who makes things happen. Thank you.”
“We are here because of President Trump,” he added.
“It’s really surreal to be here, you know. I’m a simple man, I was running the bar in the kibbutz, in Nir Oz, where I lived. And now I’m here with President Trump, who is running the world.”
All three of the former hostages called on Trump to help secure an additional hostage deal to secure the release of the 59 captives still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.
“Hamas is just a disaster, their level of hatred,” Trump said of the terror group.
“These people [the ex-captives] what they had to go through… is just horrible.”
