Keith Siegel urges Trump to ensure all hostages freed
Dual national tells US president ‘you are the reason I am home alive’; released captive Or Levy visits Hostages Square, days after release from Hamas captivity: ‘Hope dies last’
Recently released hostage Keith Siegel issued a video statement on Friday thanking US President Donald Trump for his administration’s work in securing his release as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, and asked him to ensure that the agreement remains intact until all the remaining captives are freed.
“My name is Keith Siegel and I’m a 65-year-old American citizen. I love country music and I love pancakes on Saturday morning, but that was my previous life,” he said in English in the video statement, with a yellow ribbon pinned to his sweatshirt.
“Since February 1, I am a newly released Hamas hostage. I’m a survivor. I was held for 484 days in unimaginable conditions. Every single day felt like it could be my last,” Siegel said.
“President Trump, you are the reason I am home alive,” he continued. “You are the reason I was reunited with my beloved wife, four children and five grandchildren.”
Siegel said that while held in Gaza he “lived in constant fear, fear for my life and my personal safety.
“I was starved and I was tortured, both physically and emotionally,” he said.
Siegel said that when the fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified, his captors treated him even worse than they usually did.
“Terrorists kicked me, spat on me and held me with no water, no light, no air to breathe,” he said.
Appealing to Trump, Siegel said that his “leadership, power and authority are necessary to enforce the ceasefire and put an end to the unnecessary daily dangers to the lives of innocent hostages and civilians.”
“I trust in your strength and leadership Mr. President,” he said. “The helpless hostages in the dark, cold tunnels in Gaza also trust you. Please bring them home.”
Also on Friday, released hostage Or Levy visited Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, six days after he was freed from Hamas captivity.
Levy said in a statement that he was visiting the focal point of the efforts to secure the release of those held in Gaza despite resistance from his family and doctors.
Levy was released on Saturday along with Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami. The three men were frail and emaciated as a result of their ill-treatment.
“It’s been a week now, a week since I was reborn,” said Levy. “I’m trying to process what happened during the 491 days I missed, trying to understand what transpired in our country during that time.”
He said that during his captivity in Gaza, he didn’t know whether or not his wife Eynav was still alive.
Eynav Levy was killed in the roadside shelter near the Nova rave, where the couple had fled during the rocket onslaught on the morning of October 7, 2023, while Or was taken captive.
“It was such devastating news I received when I returned, but I promised her every day while I was there that I would stay strong for her and for the greatest gift she gave me in life — Mogi,” says Levy, referring to their three-year-old son, Almog, who was raised by grandparents and other family members while he was held in Gaza.
Of the activism at Hostages Square, Levy said it was important for him to “understand everything you’ve done and continue to do, to see the work that is far from taken for granted.”
“I may be here, but I still have many brothers and sisters in the hell of Gaza, and their time is running out,” he said.
“Alon and Eliya, I’m waiting for you,” says Levy, referring to Alon Ohel and Eliya Cohen, who were held with him and fellow released hostage Eli Sharabi, whose wife and two daughters were killed on October 7. “Bring them all back! Now! Whatever it takes.”
In a heart-wrenching television interview on Sunday, Idit Ohel, the mother of Alon, said she had been told he was held starving in chains in a Hamas tunnel and has multiple untreated injuries. Idit said the return of Levy and Sharabi was the first time Alon’s family received confirmation that he is still alive since he was abducted 492 days ago from the Nova music festival.
Cohen’s family has also been told that their son has been chained throughout his time in captivity and gets very little food or daylight.
He was wounded and has not received appropriate medical attention.
Levy said he’s certain all the work done in the fight for the hostages helped him and the others return to their families, and thanked the public for its help and support and for never giving up.
“It truly isn’t taken for granted, and I genuinely feel that you all played a part in giving me my life back,” he said. “Hope dies last.”
Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, soldiers and Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Three men are set to be released on Saturday — Sasha Trufanov, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Yair Horn.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January. PJC
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