American-Israelis Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen are set to be released from Hamas captivity in phase one of a ceasefire-hostage deal.
The agreement comes as President-elect Donald Trump readies to resume his presidency in the White House. Trump warned Hamas against further delaying a deal – promising there would be “hell to pay” should the terror group continue holding hostages once he takes power.
Keith Siegel
Keith, now 65, was abducted from Kfar Aza on October 7 2023, along with his wife Aviva who was released as part of the November deal. The pair was driven to Gaza in Keith’s car along with 19 others from their kibbutz.
Keith’s ribs were reportedly broken on October 7, according to the American Jewish Committee.
A father to four and grandfather to five, Keith’s family have been active in campaigning for his release.
Aviva left Gaza after her captors reassured her that in a day or two her husband would join her, the couple’s niece told the Media Line.
Hamas released a video of Keith in April 2024, where he called for demonstrations demanding a deal in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
After over a year in Hamas captivity, Siegel will return to the news that his mother passed away in December 2024 – unable to see her son return or say goodbye.
“My father couldn’t come to say goodbye to his mother, who will never be able to return. My father is a man who has done nothing but good his whole life, who believes in good and loves people,” Keith’s daughter, Elan, said in the post. “Dad won’t be able to stand with us tomorrow at the cemetery; he won’t be able to say goodbye to the woman who raised him and loved him his whole life. A violent and murderous terrorist organization dictates our lives from the Gaza Strip to the powerful United States, and the world is silent.”
Originally from North Carolina, Keith made aliyah to Israel in 1980 where he began working as an occupational therapist.
“He is deeply into yoga and meditation, and he’s a very calm person. Anyone who knows Keith knows that he would never say a bad word about anyone,” niece Tal Wax said. “Aviva is just as kind, and Keith’s calmness is something everyone around him notices.
Sagui Dekel-Chen
Sagui, now 36, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His wife gave birth to their third child shortly after he was abducted.
The baby born two months after the massacre was named Shachar, Hebrew for the first light that comes after darkness.
Professor Jonatan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui, noted in an opinion piece published in the Times on Thursday that Sagui was living without the knowledge that his children and wife survived the attack.
The invading terrorists wounded Sagui’s mother on October 7, and attempted to abduct her, but she was able to escape, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported. She was being abducted on a tractor when the IDF began firing at the terrorists.
Before leaving his home to fight off the invaders, Sagui locked his pregnant wife and two daughters in the family’s safe room.
“The girls lived through it, the murder of many of their little friends on the kibbutz, the murder of parents of their friends, and just the complete dislocation from their community,” Professor Dekel-Chen told the Times. “We lost 59 members of our kibbutz on that day, our homes were destroyed. And this small farming community was rendered uninhabitable. So they have had to bear that multi-level trauma.”
Professor Dekel-Chen has been heavily critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for being unable to retrieve his son.
“The one who sits at the top and who is responsible for what happened, primarily, on October 7 – that is our Prime Minister,” he told the Kofman and Arieh program on 103FM in March. “To return the captives or whoever is possible, to return them alive, not to sacrifice them again.”
The professor was also a member of a group of families who was critical of Netanyahu delivering a speech to the US Congress in July.
American-Israel Edan Alexander, 21, is expected to be released as part of a second phase, according to the Hill.
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