FIRST ON FOX – Aviva Siegel, the spouse of American hostage Kieth Siegel and a former hostage herself, is pleading with everybody and anybody involved in the hostage negotiations to get her husband, and the others, free of Hamas captivity after they’ve spent greater than 440 days in deplorable situations.
“Hamas launched a video of Keith, and I simply noticed the image,” Aviva informed Fox Information Digital in an emotional interview in reference to a video Hamas launched in April. “He appears to be like horrible. His bones are out, and you’ll see that he is misplaced a number of weight.
“He does not appear to be himself. And I am simply so apprehensive about him, as a result of so [many] days and minutes have handed since that video that we acquired,” she mentioned. “I simply do not know what sort of Keith that we will get again.”
Keith Samuel Siegel, 64, stays hostage in Gaza by Hamas (Hostage Household Discussion board)
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“I am apprehensive about all of the hostages, as a result of the situations that they’re in are the worst situations that any human being may undergo,” Aviva mentioned. “I used to be there. I touched loss of life. I do know what it feels being beneath the bottom with no oxygen.
“Keith and I had been simply left there. We had been left there to die,” she added.
Aviva and her husband of, on the time 42 years, had been brutally kidnapped from their house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held collectively for 51 days earlier than she was launched within the November 2023 hostage alternate after affected by a abdomen an infection that left her extremely in poor health.
She has since tirelessly fought for Kieth’s launch, assembly with prime officers within the U.S. and Israel, touring to america 9 occasions within the final yr and turning into a outstanding advocate for the hostages.
“I simply hope that he is with different folks from Israel, and if he has them, he’ll be okay,” Aviva mentioned. “He’s simply the person who will make them really feel that they’re collectively. That is what he did once I was there – he was 100% for me and the hostages that we had been with.”
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – MARCH 30: Launched hostage Aviva Siegel, spouse of hostage Keith Siegel, speaks through the closing weekly ‘deliver them house now’ rally on March 30, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Based on the households of hostages discussion board, this might be the final week a rally is held at ‘hostage sq.’ citing that the federal government shouldn’t be severe about negotiations and as a substitute might be protesting in entrance of the Knesset to any extent further. (Photograph by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Photographs)
“In case you get kidnapped, get kidnapped with Keith, as a result of he was excellent to everyone. He was robust for all of us. And I am certain that he is maintaining robust and maintaining his hope to return out,” she mentioned.
Aviva recounted their final moments together before they were separated forward of her launch, telling Fox Information Digital, “After I left him, I informed him to be the strongest – that he must be robust for me, and I will be robust for him.”
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Prime safety officers from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar have been pushing Israel and Hamas to conform to a cease-fire and the return of hostages.
Reviews on Thursday recommended that negotiators are pushing for a 42-day cease-fire through which 34 of the at least 50 hostages nonetheless assessed to be alive, may very well be exchanged.
Hamas can also be believed to proceed to carry at least 38 who were taken hostage after which killed whereas in captivity, together with not less than seven who’re believed to have been killed on Oct. 7, 2023 after which taken into Gaza.
Although all of the hostages are believed to have been held in deplorable situations, the kids, ladies – together with the feminine IDF troopers – the sick and the aged have reportedly been entrance listed to be freed first in alternate for Hamas terrorists at present imprisoned.
“I am maintaining my hope and holding on and simply ready – ready to hug Keith, and ready for all of the households, to get their households again,” Aviva mentioned. “We have to get them again.”
Aviva mentioned she goals of the second that she will get to hug her husband once more and watch their grandchildren “leap into his arms.”
“We’ll be the happiest folks on Earth,” she mentioned. “All of the hostages, I can not think about them coming house. It’s going to be simply the happiest second for all the households. We’d like it to occur.”
Reviews in latest weeks recommend there’s an elevated sense of optimism in bringing house the hostages, however Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged some warning when talking with MSNBC Morning Joe on Thursday when he mentioned, “We’re inspired as a result of this could occur, and it ought to occur as a result of Hamas is at some extent the place the cavalry it thought may come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue, [Hezbollah’s] not coming to the rescue, [Iran’s] not coming to the rescue.”
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“Within the absence of that, I feel the strain is on Hamas to lastly get to sure,” he added. “However look, I feel we additionally need to be very lifelike. We’ve had these Lucy and the soccer moments a number of occasions over the past months the place we thought we had been there, and the soccer will get pulled away.
“The true query is: Is Hamas able to making a choice and attending to sure? We’ve been fanning out with each doable accomplice on this to attempt to get the required strain exerted on Hamas to say sure,” Blinken added.
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