Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, and whose husband Keith stays in Hamas captivity, spends time with her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv at her daughter’s dwelling on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. Aviva has been staying with her daughter in northern Israel since being launched in November.
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Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, and whose husband Keith stays in Hamas captivity, spends time with her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv at her daughter’s dwelling on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. Aviva has been staying with her daughter in northern Israel since being launched in November.
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KIBBUTZ GAZIT, Israel — Aviva Siegel held fingers with her five- and eight-year-old grandchildren as they walked a path alongside the sting of this northern Israeli group’s verdant hills. In the space, the three might see Jordan glowing via the sundown haze as they stopped and picked mustard flowers to combine with olive oil, garlic and a pinch of salt.
This was no extraordinary spring afternoon. Siegel wore a black shirt with her husband Keith’s portrait on the entrance and the message “Bring Them Home Now” on the again.
For her, the easy pleasure of a stroll via nature with her grandchildren is incomplete, after over 150 days with out her husband. He is a hostage of Hamas in Gaza. She was additionally seized by Hamas attackers on Oct. 7, however was freed after 51 days whereas Keith was left behind.
“It just feels like part of me is still there,” Siegel told NPR in early April.
Until Saturday, she had no thought if her husband was useless or alive. But that day, she and her household acquired the primary signal of life, when Hamas launched a video exhibiting Keith, who’s a U.S. and Israeli citizen, alongside with one other Israeli hostage, Omri Miran.
“I want to tell my family that I love you very much,” Keith says in the video. “It’s important to me that you know I’m okay, and I really hope you are too.”
At one level, Keith struggles to take care of his composure and breaks down in tears. Both he and Miran point out the Passover vacation, suggesting the video was recorded not too long ago. Miran says he has been held for 202 days.
For Aviva and her household, the glimpse of Keith after months of uncertainty has given them renewed hope, and bolstered their perception in what they’ve lengthy urged: that Israel should pay no matter value needed — together with ending the conflict in Gaza — to free Keith and the remaining hostages.
“Seeing my father today only emphasizes to all of us how much we must reach a deal as soon as possible and bring everyone home,” Elan Tiv, Aviva and Keith’s 33-year-old daughter, says in a video message she and her sister and mom launched in response to Saturday’s Hamas video. “I demand that the leaders of this country watch this video and see their own father crying out for help.”
Israeli troopers survey the destruction in Kfar Aza, Israel, on Oct. 27, 2023. The small kibbutz group close to the Gaza border was raided by Hamas militants in the course of the Oct. 7 assaults. They killed over 60 individuals, kidnapped not less than 18 and destroyed scores of properties.
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Israeli troopers survey the destruction in Kfar Aza, Israel, on Oct. 27, 2023. The small kibbutz group close to the Gaza border was raided by Hamas militants in the course of the Oct. 7 assaults. They killed over 60 individuals, kidnapped not less than 18 and destroyed scores of properties.
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The rest room of a home that was burned in Kfar Aza, as seen on Oct. 27, 2023.
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The rest room of a home that was burned in Kfar Aza, as seen on Oct. 27, 2023.
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Smoke rises from northern Gaza after an Israeli airstrike is seen from Sderot, Israel, on Oct. 29, 2023.
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Smoke rises from northern Gaza after an Israeli airstrike is seen from Sderot, Israel, on Oct. 29, 2023.
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Posters exhibiting Keith and Aviva Siegel are displayed on the Torah ark at Kibbutz Gezer’s synagogue as Keith’s brother, Lee Siegel, and Lee’s spouse Sheli converse to a bunch from the U.S. about their household, on March 25. The kibbutz is the place Keith and Aviva Siegel met in 1980. Lee and Sheli Siegel have lived on the kibbutz for the reason that 1970s.
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Posters exhibiting Keith and Aviva Siegel are displayed on the Torah ark at Kibbutz Gezer’s synagogue as Keith’s brother, Lee Siegel, and Lee’s spouse Sheli converse to a bunch from the U.S. about their household, on March 25. The kibbutz is the place Keith and Aviva Siegel met in 1980. Lee and Sheli Siegel have lived on the kibbutz for the reason that 1970s.
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Lives are in limbo
On Oct. 7, 1000’s of Hamas-led militants burst via the Gaza border fence and stormed close by Israeli communities and a music competition, killing round 1,200 individuals and taking greater than 240 captive, based on Israeli authorities. Aviva and Keith had been amongst them. Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza, which continues greater than six months later, has killed greater than 34,000 Palestinians, based on Gaza well being officers.
Even as mediators and a few officers have expressed cautious optimism in regards to the newest truce deal underneath dialogue, for Aviva, 63, and different kin of hostages, every day of conflict prolongs the agony of residing in limbo with out their family members.
The Siegels had been kidnapped from their dwelling in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz group close to the Gaza border, and pushed at gunpoint to Gaza in their very own automobile. Their kibbutz was destroyed, their neighbors killed and captured. Keith, who’s 64, was shot in the hand and suffered damaged ribs.
The couple remained collectively all through their captivity, till they had been separated when Aviva was launched throughout a short cease-fire and hostage alternate deal in November.
Since her launch, Aviva has been residing on Elan’s northern Israeli kibbutz, surrounded by her youngsters and different kin, oscillating between hope and despair. She stated she had misplaced 10 kilos — about 22 kilos — in Gaza and will hardly stroll when she got here again. Her household cared for her, fed her, helped her bathe and did the whole lot they might to help her restoration. They proceed to assist her at dwelling and stand by her facet in public, however they see she has modified.
Aviva Siegel spends time with her daughter Elan Tiv, 33, and grandchildren (clockwise from left to proper), Hadar, 5, Yali, 8, and Roei, 9, at a seaside in Tel Aviv, on March 28.
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Aviva Siegel spends time with her daughter Elan Tiv, 33, and grandchildren (clockwise from left to proper), Hadar, 5, Yali, 8, and Roei, 9, at a seaside in Tel Aviv, on March 28.
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Elan Tiv drives a brief distance dwelling with her five-year-old son Hadar after going for a stroll on March 26 with her older daughter and her mom, Aviva Siegel, on Kibbutz Gazit, the group the place she lives in northern Israel. “I feel like because it’s been so long, I can’t even imagine how my dad looks,” Tiv says. “It feels like he might be a person that I don’t even recognize.”
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Elan Tiv drives a brief distance dwelling with her five-year-old son Hadar after going for a stroll on March 26 with her older daughter and her mom, Aviva Siegel, on Kibbutz Gazit, the group the place she lives in northern Israel. “I feel like because it’s been so long, I can’t even imagine how my dad looks,” Tiv says. “It feels like he might be a person that I don’t even recognize.”
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A lady appears at a wall in Tel Aviv with pictures of individuals held hostage in Gaza, on Oct. 20, 2023.
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A lady appears at a wall in Tel Aviv with pictures of individuals held hostage in Gaza, on Oct. 20, 2023.
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Aviva Siegel, her grandchildren and different kin stroll collectively on the entrance of a march supporting the hostage households as they strategy their vacation spot, Jerusalem, on March 2. The four-day march by hostage households and their supporters started in the areas attacked on Oct. 7 in southern Israel, and grew to 15,000 individuals at its peak.
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Aviva Siegel, her grandchildren and different kin stroll collectively on the entrance of a march supporting the hostage households as they strategy their vacation spot, Jerusalem, on March 2. The four-day march by hostage households and their supporters started in the areas attacked on Oct. 7 in southern Israel, and grew to 15,000 individuals at its peak.
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“I don’t feel like she is the mom she was before or the grandmother she was before,” Elan says.
Aviva relishes her time with her 5 grandchildren, however has struggled to elucidate to them why she got here again and why their grandfather didn’t.
“I’m against war, I’m against killing people. I want people to have a better life in Gaza, out of Gaza — in the whole world,” she says.
Hostages went hungry and had been subjected to abuse by their captors
Aviva was born in South Africa and immigrated to Israel as a baby. Keith grew up in North Carolina and met Aviva in 1980, after they had been each volunteering on his brother’s kibbutz in central Israel. He was 20 and he or she was 18. They fell in love and shortly moved to Kfar Aza. For over 40 years, they constructed a life collectively, elevating 4 youngsters and changing into grandparents to 5. Aviva was a nursery college instructor and Keith a pharmaceutical gross sales consultant.
Everything modified on Oct. 7.
After being taken hostage, Aviva remembers arriving in Gaza and listening to the sounds of crowds shouting “Allahu akbar,” or “God is greatest,” and taking pictures in the air.
“They were just, like, so happy looking at us,” she says. “That was a horrible feeling.”
Over the subsequent 51 days, Aviva and Keith had been moved 13 instances to areas above floor and beneath – staying in properties and inside Hamas’ suffocating subterranean tunnel community, she says.
Among the areas the place the couple had been held was a tunnel she says was 40 yards deep. Aviva stated they had been led to a darkish room with three mattresses and a rest room with no water. After spending days underground in the darkish with little to eat or drink, the shortage of oxygen turned insufferable. Aviva pleaded with her captors to take them above floor and to convey them drugs, however says she was ignored.
“I was sure that we were going to die,” she says.
Shir Siegel, 28, locations a yellow-ribbon pin symbolizing the marketing campaign to free the hostages on her mom Aviva’s shirt earlier than an interview on the Hostage and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 28. The group was began in the wake of the Oct. 7 assaults to advocate for the discharge of the hostages and assist their households.
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Shir Siegel, 28, locations a yellow-ribbon pin symbolizing the marketing campaign to free the hostages on her mom Aviva’s shirt earlier than an interview on the Hostage and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, March 28. The group was began in the wake of the Oct. 7 assaults to advocate for the discharge of the hostages and assist their households.
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When Keith and Aviva had been moved to a home, they had been relieved to breathe recent air however remained on the mercy of their captors, who had been, she says, “so mean and so cruel.” Armed males guarding them would eat and drink in entrance of them whereas they went hungry, forbidding them to speak and threatening them in the event that they a lot as whispered.
On one other event, a younger feminine hostage with whom they had been being held left the room to go to the toilet. When she returned, Aviva sensed that one thing was incorrect.
“I got up and I gave her a hug, knowing that we’re not allowed to hug because we weren’t allowed to show any emotions,” she says. Their guard entered and commenced shouting, demanding to know why Aviva was hugging the younger lady.
“She was very quiet for a couple of hours,” Aviva remembers. Then, “She came to me and she said, ‘He touched me.’ She went through sexual abuse.”
Keith inspired different hostages to remain optimistic
Aviva and Keith remained collectively till the day earlier than she was launched. Keith offered assist and luxury for her, at the same time as he himself struggled to course of the cruel actuality of their captivity.
“When I needed him to hold my hand, he held my hand, if I needed him to take me to the bathroom, he walked with me to the bathroom,” she says. “He was with me 100%.”
Keith selected to not disclose his U.S. citizenship as a result of he was scared Hamas would launch him and that Aviva can be left behind.
“Now I’m out,” Aviva says, “and Keith is still there.”
On some evenings, Aviva stated Keith would ask her and the 2 or three feminine hostages they had been being held with to specific one thing optimistic that they felt that day.
“I used to say that I’m lucky that I have Keith and I’m lucky that I had the girls to be with,” she says, “and all I want is to wake up tomorrow morning and not die that night.”
A helicopter transporting launched hostages, who had been held in Gaza for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assaults, lands at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, in the course of the short-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas on Nov. 28, 2023.
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A helicopter transporting launched hostages, who had been held in Gaza for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assaults, lands at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, in the course of the short-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas on Nov. 28, 2023.
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Aviva Siegel is supported by Keith’s brother, Lee, 72, and her daughter Shir, 28, as she speaks on the weekly rally supporting the hostages and their households in Tel Aviv, on March 30. “He helped me calm down, gave me a feeling that I was not alone, he was there for me 100%,” she stated of her husband in the course of the speech. “If I had to be kidnapped to Gaza, then at least it was with Keith.”
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Aviva Siegel is supported by Keith’s brother, Lee, 72, and her daughter Shir, 28, as she speaks on the weekly rally supporting the hostages and their households in Tel Aviv, on March 30. “He helped me calm down, gave me a feeling that I was not alone, he was there for me 100%,” she stated of her husband in the course of the speech. “If I had to be kidnapped to Gaza, then at least it was with Keith.”
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Lee Siegel, 72, whose brother Keith is being held hostage in Gaza, addresses lawmakers in a committee assembly on the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, on March 26.
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Lee Siegel, 72, whose brother Keith is being held hostage in Gaza, addresses lawmakers in a committee assembly on the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, on March 26.
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Aviva Siegel greets Luis Har, who was additionally kidnapped on Oct. 7 and freed by Israeli forces throughout a raid in Rafah in February, on the Hostage and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, on March 28.
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Aviva Siegel greets Luis Har, who was additionally kidnapped on Oct. 7 and freed by Israeli forces throughout a raid in Rafah in February, on the Hostage and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, on March 28.
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On her launch, Aviva discovered that her son had survived
On Nov. 25, two days into the short-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a Hamas militant advised Aviva, “You, tomorrow, Israel.” Aviva vowed she wouldn’t go away with out Keith. Eventually she understood she was powerless to cease it. When her guards refused to let her say goodbye, she says she pushed them and ran to her husband, who was mendacity on a mattress on the ground.
“I told him, please be strong for me and I’ll be strong for you,” Aviva says.
She entered Israel the subsequent day.
Until then, Aviva thought her 40-year-old son, Shai, who additionally lived on Kfar Aza, had been killed on Oct. 7. With no entry to data, she and Keith did not know what to imagine. They had been advised by their captors that there was nobody left in Kfar Aza, and that Israel had been destroyed.
As she was transported to a hospital in Israel, Aviva discovered that her son was alive and that her household was ready for her.
“It was just one of the most wonderful moments that I’ve ever had in my life,” she says.
Relatives have tried to maintain public consideration centered on hostages
On a Monday morning in March, Keith’s older brother Lee Siegel, 72, his spouse Sheli, 65, and different kin and buddies walked the halls of Israel’s Knesset, trying to talk in as many committee conferences as doable earlier than lawmakers left for their spring recess. Israelis from all backgrounds crossed paths, however the hostage households stood out — every sporting variations on the “Bring Them Home Now” shirts, carrying indicators with images of their family members and an rising sense of urgency.
At his dwelling on Kibbutz Gezer, Lee Siegel appears at a photograph of himself collectively with his youthful brother Keith, who’s still being held hostage in Gaza, on March 30. Lee describes his brother as an “altruistic, engaging human being,” and a lover of music.
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At his dwelling on Kibbutz Gezer, Lee Siegel appears at a photograph of himself collectively with his youthful brother Keith, who’s still being held hostage in Gaza, on March 30. Lee describes his brother as an “altruistic, engaging human being,” and a lover of music.
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“I shouldn’t be begging for my brother’s life and for all of the hostages,” Lee advised lawmakers in the Economic Affairs committee throughout a three-minute speech. “But I am because there’s nothing left for me to do except to talk to you and beg you to do the right thing — make sure the deal goes through to bring the hostages home.”
The hostage households have turn out to be fixtures on the Knesset, and a lawmaker main the assembly briskly returned to enterprise. “Anyone else?” he stated, after Lee stopped talking. “Then, with your permission, we’ll continue the meeting.”
Lee, a father of three who works in a flower exporting enterprise on his kibbutz, has been concerned in peace advocacy in the previous, however his activism since Oct. 7 is extra private. Every week, he and his household participate in demonstrations in assist of the hostages that decision on the Israeli authorities to make a deal. He speaks typically to media, lawmakers and teams that go to his kibbutz, as he and his household try and maintain the hostages entrance and middle in the minds of Israelis and other people worldwide.
Aviva Siegel has turn out to be considered one of Israel’s most vocal advocates for hostage households
Since the beginning of the conflict, 124 hostages have been freed, 105 of whom, together with Aviva, had been launched in the course of the week-long cease-fire in late November. As a part of the truce, Israel launched 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israel believes Hamas still holds 133 individuals captive in Gaza, together with the our bodies of 33 individuals. It is unclear what number of others are still alive.
Lee Siegel, kin and buddies make their means via the Knesset in Jerusalem to talk earlier than committee conferences on March 26. “On October 7, we lost many lives,” Lee says. “We lost the ability to think rationally, we lost the ability to live by what we say are our Jewish values and another brick in the wall will be that we haven’t prioritized returning as many hostages as we can over revenge.”
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Lee Siegel, kin and buddies make their means via the Knesset in Jerusalem to talk earlier than committee conferences on March 26. “On October 7, we lost many lives,” Lee says. “We lost the ability to think rationally, we lost the ability to live by what we say are our Jewish values and another brick in the wall will be that we haven’t prioritized returning as many hostages as we can over revenge.”
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Aviva Siegel stands with Luis Har and his accomplice Clara Marman, each of whom had been additionally kidnapped on Oct. 7, throughout a photograph session for an Israeli information outlet in Tel Aviv, on March 28. “Keith and all the hostages are going through hell like I did,” Aviva says. “I know where they are and I know who they’re with. We need to get them out as soon as possible.”
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Aviva Siegel stands with Luis Har and his accomplice Clara Marman, each of whom had been additionally kidnapped on Oct. 7, throughout a photograph session for an Israeli information outlet in Tel Aviv, on March 28. “Keith and all the hostages are going through hell like I did,” Aviva says. “I know where they are and I know who they’re with. We need to get them out as soon as possible.”
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Aviva Siegel locations a flower behind her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv’s ear as they go for a stroll close to Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. “I’m against war, I’m against killing people. I want people to have a better life in Gaza, out of Gaza — in the whole world,” Siegel says.
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Aviva Siegel locations a flower behind her eight-year-old granddaughter Yali Tiv’s ear as they go for a stroll close to Kibbutz Gazit on March 26. “I’m against war, I’m against killing people. I want people to have a better life in Gaza, out of Gaza — in the whole world,” Siegel says.
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Hadar Tiv, 5, his mom Elan, 33, and their members of the family elevate a glass to his grandfather Keith Siegel throughout dinner at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, March 28.
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Hadar Tiv, 5, his mom Elan, 33, and their members of the family elevate a glass to his grandfather Keith Siegel throughout dinner at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, March 28.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that Israel’s navy offensive in Gaza is one of the simplest ways to exert stress on Hamas to launch the hostages. But lots of their households say the federal government ought to be prepared to comply with a cease-fire, particularly if it means bringing their family members dwelling.
“For many months now, we have become much better at sanctifying death than we have sanctifying life,” Lee says. “So without Keith and the others who are still alive, being home alive, we are losing more than we lost on Oct. 7.”
In the months since her return, Aviva has turn out to be one of many hostage households’ most vocal advocates. She has spoken out about her captivity, testified earlier than the Knesset on sexual violence, traveled to Geneva, the place she spoke with Red Cross leaders and U.N. human rights commissioner Volker Turk, and met President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and quite a few U.S. lawmakers in Washington.
Aviva has stated she won’t relaxation till she is reunited with Keith.
At a Saturday night time rally in late March in Tel Aviv, in opposition to the backdrop of faltering oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Aviva made an emotional attraction to Israel’s management.
“I have no idea what I’m doing here in this life I’ve been given, I have no idea how to continue with all the feelings I’m feeling,” she stated to a crowd of 1000’s, her voice wavering, whereas flanked by her daughter Shir, 28, and Lee, all sporting shirts with Keith’s photograph on them.
She urged Netanyahu and his conflict cupboard to take accountability.
“Don’t talk to me about victory, don’t talk to me about military pressure. Nothing has worked so far, they are dying there every day,” she spoke firmly into the microphone. “Do everything now to bring everyone home!”
Aviva Siegel says good night time to her grandson Roei, 9, at her daughter’s dwelling on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26.
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Aviva Siegel says good night time to her grandson Roei, 9, at her daughter’s dwelling on Kibbutz Gazit on March 26.
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The household stays guided by the hope that Keith will return alive. Over burgers at a latest dinner in Tel Aviv with Aviva and three of her youngsters, Elan’s 5-year-old son Hadar raised his bottle of iced tea. The remainder of the household raised their glasses.
“L’chayeh Saba,” they stated. To Grandpa’s life.