Freed hostage Aviva Siegel shares horrors of Hamas captivity, says she 'touched death'
WASHINGTON — Former hostage Aviva Siegel was still in pajamas when Hamas militants stormed into her home, breaking her husband’s ribs and dragging the pair to Gaza, where the terrorists starved their captives and abused young female prisoners.
On that fateful day, Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists kidnapped 63-year-old Siegel and her husband, Keith, from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel.
“It was very difficult for me to understand at the beginning what I was doing in Gaza in my pajamas,” Siegel told The Christian Post in an interview this week. “We just didn’t understand because we’re peacemakers. We want good for the whole world, and we want good for the people who live in Gaza.”
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Despite her release during a temporary ceasefire last year, Siegel’s husband, an Israeli-American citizen, is still a hostage in Gaza. The former captive is now traveling the globe to advocate for the freedom of the remaining hostages, as she knows firsthand what they’re likely going through.
“They took us from this world,” she told CP. “We weren’t allowed to feel; we weren’t allowed to cry. I’ll never understand the brutal way the terrorists treated Keith and me. I was scared all of the time they were going to kill us. They just did what they wanted; they played with our lives.”
The events leading up to the couple's abduction began with a missile attack on the morning of Oct. 7, which Siegel noted was not an abnormal occurrence.
Living in southern Israel near the border of Gaza, attacks like these are a part of one's everyday life.
At the time, Siegel and her husband thought nothing of it, and they proceeded to a bomb shelter, figuring they'd be able to exit soon and continue with their day. After hearing an explosion, the two stepped out of the shelter, thinking the attack had ended.
'Feels like the end of the world'
When she stepped out of the shelter, Siegel saw from the window a barrage of missiles launched from Gaza headed into Israel.
"I remember running back to the little shelter, looking at Keith in his eyes, and saying, 'What's happening? It feels like the end of the world. It feels like maybe a war is starting,'" she remembered. "And I was scared. I was shaking, not understanding what was happening."
Later, Siegel learned that Hamas, the terror group that has controlled the neighboring Gaza Strip since 2007, killed over 60 members of her kibbutz community — gunning down parents, the elderly, as well as women and children.
Reports also surfaced of people burning to death in their homes as a result of the Hamas attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 individuals and the capture of over 250 hostages, mostly civilians.
As Siegel tried to relax in the safe room with her husband comforting her, the two heard people speaking Arabic outside. They came to understand Hamas was in the kibbutz. The terrorists started shooting at the house, and once the couple heard them walking around inside, Siegel stood up and screamed.
The shelter, designed to defend people from rocket attacks, could not protect the husband and wife from the armed terrorists who stormed their house. Hamas members forced Siegel's husband to his feet, tearing his shirt, and they pushed the couple out of the safe room.
"They broke [Keith's] ribs, and they shot his hand," the wife and grandmother recalled. "We arrived in Gaza, and Keith was bleeding. He was in terrible, terrible pain."
That same morning, the Siegels' daughter, Elan, was on vacation in Eilat with her three children, 9, 7 and 5 at the time. While on vacation, the family heard some news about missiles and a terrorist attack, and Elan started texting with her parents, who assured her that they were fine.
"Around 10 a.m., we stopped receiving messages from them," Elan Siegel told CP. "My dad wrote to us that the battery of his cell phone was running low, so we figured it was off, and they were in the safe room."
Hoping for the best
The family learned later that terrorists had invaded Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and they were shooting at the Israeli military from rooftops to stop them from rescuing residents. When the Israeli military finally made it inside the Siegels' house later that day, they found it empty.
"So when we heard the house is empty, we figured maybe they were hiding in the bushes around the house," Elan told CP. "Or, maybe they managed to rescue themselves, and they're in some hospital in the region."
In the afternoon on Oct. 8, one of the Siegels' neighbors in the kibbutz told Elan that they saw armed individuals taking her parents away. Hamas also published videos of its "successes" on Oct. 7, according to the daughter. One two-minute video showed her father's car passing the border into Gaza, and Elan knew for sure then that her parents had been kidnapped.
The terrorists drove the Siegels to Gaza in the couple's own vehicle. When they arrived, Aviva Siegel remembered how a crowd of Gazan civilians clapped and cheered as Hamas walked by with their captives. She started crying, wondering where Hamas was taking them and what sort of fate awaited them.
During her time as a hostage, Hamas moved the kibbutz residents to a new location 13 times.
One of the locations was a large building that contained expensive furnishings and a bathroom the color of gold. A United Nations van was parked outside, and a cupboard inside held multiple pairs of shoes, both for children and adults.
The former hostage didn't know what the building was, but she figured it must have been an expensive school. She never had the chance to find out, as her captors only kept the husband and wife there for one day before moving them again.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
