Hamas is set to release its first American hostage from captivity in Gaza on Saturday.
After being held hostage by the terrorist organization for nearly 16 months, American Israeli Keith Siegel, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will be freed this weekend in accordance with the terms set by the latest ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. Hamas said in a statement Friday that it also plans to release Israeli citizens Yarden Bibas and Ofer Kalderon after it took all three men hostage during its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
The news means Siegel will be reunited with his wife, Aviva, who was also taken hostage by Hamas before being released a month later.
“You know, I wake up every morning, and I tell myself, be strong and talk for Keith. I'm here talking for Keith. I'm here talking for all the hostages that are still in Gaza, underneath the ground. And believe me that I'm sure that they're screaming, ‘Just get me out of here,'” she said during an NBC News interview last November. “Just figure yourself lying underneath the ground on a filthy, dirty mattress for days, and you have to keep silent. ... And when they torture somebody that you love, like they tortured Keith, you have to just keep quiet.”
Siegel was last seen alive by the public in a video Hamas released in April, in which he spoke to his family, saying, “It’s very important to me that you know I’m OK."
The captive’s wife said Hamas sexually assaulted other women with her during captivity and tortured her husband last fall.
“There were so many moments there that I just wanted to cry, and my heart just wanted to explode, to burst from the cruel way they treated my Keith, at 65 years old, an American hostage that's underneath the ground for more than a year and two months,” she said.
There are two more Americans, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Edan Alexander, rumored to be alive in Hamas captivity. Hamas is holding the bodies of four more, Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Judith Weinstein, and Gadi Haggai, who were likely murdered by the terrorist organization on Oct. 7. American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin was killed in August 2024 by Hamas as Israeli troops were moving in.
Siegel’s anticipated release on Saturday comes as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange with Israel since the ceasefire went into effect on Jan. 19. Israel will surrender a group of 90 Palestinian prisoners the same day in exchange for Siegel, Bibas, and Kalderon, according to a statement from Hamas's Prisoners' Media Office on Friday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Earlier this week, Israel criticized Hamas over the “shocking” way the terrorist group released a group of eight hostages.
After video showed the hostages surrounded by armed terrorists during their handover to the Red Cross, Israel briefly delayed the release of its set of Palestinian prisoners until Hamas agreed to release the remaining hostages under safer conditions.
