My name is Keith Siegel. I am an American grandfather who survived 484 days in Gaza.
On October 7, 2023, my wife Aviva and I were violently kidnapped from our house by Hamas’ terrorists. They shot me in my hand and broke some ribs the kidnapping, the injuries not treated until my return to Israel.
Aviva was released after 51 days. Our farewell words were a promise to remain strong for each other and survive. I was finally released in February, after enduring almost 16 months in captivity.
I’M Sharing My Story Becouse As Jews Around The World Prepare For Passover, The Festival of Freedom, We Must Rememberos The 59 Hostages in Gaza Who Still Lack That Freedom – And What there are facing: Physical Abuse, and Psychological Norture, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation ISOLATION, ISOLATION, ISOLATION, ISOLATION, ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, AND ISOLATION, Insulation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation, Isolation and Isolation.
My experience was brutal: I was a hero in the suffocating heat of 130 feet tunnels underground. I witnessed extreme violence: handcuffed, beaten and sexually attacked.
A female hostage was gagged and tied while the feet were in beetle with metal rods. I was paralyzed, unable to help.
These memories of medieval torture still chase me to this day.
Contrary to popular belief, the terrorists who heroes were not watching; They ate well while we hungry. It would make four rice snacks last 20 snacks, slowly eating to savor each bite of food. When they released me, I weigh only 125 pounds, below approximately 190.
I knew resistance meant death. I couldn’t fight or escape. I was inside Gaza; Where could I go?
I resisted when they kicked me or splashed on me. Nor when my body shaved to humiliate me.
Not even when one locked me in a room, a gun said in my head and said: “I’m going to kill you now.”
When I was forced to make propaganda videos, I fulfilled.
When they tried to become Islam, I recited their phrases.
I found a small control space: I refused to beg.
The worse they treated me: the beatings, hunger, humiliation, less wanted to ask for something.
For six months of my captivity, I was completely only in isolation.
To keep me mentally strong, I counted days for the calls of the mosque to prayer. I sang songs by James Taylor in my mind. Hero daily conversations with my family in my head, even with my 96 -year -old mother in North Carolina. Unfortunately, she died. Duration My captivity, and I never had a final opportunity to hug her.
After more than a year of this nightmare, President Donald Trump was elected and everything changed overnight.
His victory transformed my destiny and that of another 37 hostages. In a matter of days, the negotiations resumed and the agreement that brought me home was signed.
When I finally released, I left physically broken, but I had achieved my mission: fulfilling my promise of Aviva to survive.
Only week after my launch, I had the honor of meeting President Trump in person.
Despite my weakened condition, I knew I had to make the trip. It was easy to board a plane as soon after leaving those suffocating tunnels in Gaza. But I had to do it, not only to thank the man who saved my life, but for those I left behind.
When President Trump grabbed my hand, I saw in his eyes a genuine determination to finish what began and take everyone home.
Other hostages published the duration of the agreement, such as me, have described the terrible conditions faced by those that are still in captivity: chained in dirt and misery in small tunnels, without air, light, sanitation, food or water, each.
I constantly think or kill angut, who spent a week in captivity before they separated us. He was only 21 years old when he was captured.
How are you surviving now, many months later? Do you still have that spark of hope in your eyes? Or has it been attenuated after seeing as a hostage after being hostage as he remains?
They kill and others need continuous pressure from the United States to take them home.
As a American, I am proud to have President Trump as my president. Thanks to him, I met my wife, his children and his granddaughter.
Please, President Trump, continue the extraordinary work he has done. We have a deal to bring them all, those who still live and those who have lost their lives and deserve a clean burial.
We cannot abandon these people to the darkness that I just escaped.
I managed to survive 484 days in captivity, but those who are still trapped in the Hamas tunnels could not endure much more.
I am very lucky to be able to recite the history of Easter exodus with my family this year. But I thought it might seem free, none of us is really, until all hostages return home.
