BREAKING: First American Held Captive By Hamas To Be Released

The first 12 days of President Trump’s new administration hasn’t been completely pain free or devoid of tragedy.

But there have been plenty of celebratory moments, too.

One such moment is approaching for a family from North Carolina, who at the hands of Hamas have endured a staggering 1 year, 3 months, and 18 days of hell on earth.

Their suffering is complicated by geographic space and time, but their joy knows no such limits.

BREAKING: First American hostage to be released from Gaza, Hamas says https://t.co/LiJUfcRpLB

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 31, 2025

Aviva Siegel just found out that her husband of more than 40 years is about to be released by Hamas as early as this weekend; Saturday, to be exact.

Here’s the moment Aviva and her daughter celebrated together after hearing the news:

Aviva, who was captured and held along with her husband, was herself released about a month into her captivity.

I can only imagine what it would be like to be apart from my wife for that long, much less under those conditions.

Her husband, Keith, has been held all this time — away from his wife, family, and freedom according to a Fox News report:

American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, is set to be released on Saturday as part of Israel and Hamas’ ceasefire deal.

He is the first of the American citizens taken on Oct. 7, 2023, to be released by the terror organization as part of this ceasefire deal.

Hamas says that the hostages to be released alongside Siegel are French-Israeli citizen Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas, the father of the two youngest hostages, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.

Six months into his time in Hamas captivity, in April 2024, Siegel was seen in a hostage video. In the clip, which confirmed Siegel was alive, he said, “It’s very important to me that you know I’m okay.”

In a December 2024 interview with Fox News Digital, Siegel’s wife of more than 40 years, Aviva, said that her husband didn’t “look like himself.”

“I’m just so worried about him, because so [many] days and minutes have passed since that video that we received,” she said. “I just don’t know what kind of Keith that we’re going to get back.”

Keith and Aviva were taken captive during Hamas’ brutal surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. In November 2023, Aviva was released from Hamas captivity as part of a ceasefire and hostage deal early in the war. She has been fighting for her husband’s freedom since she was released.

Aviva’s dream is “seeing Keith in front of us and his grandchildren jumping into his arms and we’ll all cry together, and we’ll be the happiest people in Earth.”

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Seigel was kidnapped from a kibbutz where the couple lived in Israel, according to a story this morning from ABC’s Good Morning America:

Keith Seigel is expected to become the first American-Israeli hostage to be freed after 15 months in captivity by Hamas on Saturday. @BrittClennett has more on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/7CwxiV2tgS

— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 31, 2025

Hamas announced Friday that Siegel would be one of the next hostages released in a prisoner exchange.

First American hostage, dad of youngest captive held in Gaza among next to be released by Hamas, terror group says https://t.co/cfyR6DIgQ2 pic.twitter.com/cYiG4p9vRr

— New York Post (@nypost) January 31, 2025

Siegel hasn’t been seen since a video was released in 2024, according to a report in the New York Post:

Palestinian terror group Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen in the next exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.

On Thursday, Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza while Israel freed 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds engulfing one of the hostage handover points.

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Under the cease-fire deal that halted more than 15 months of fighting, 33 hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel.

The hostages who have been released have detailed harsh conditions including lack of food and water.

Watch this Associated Press story detailing Aviva’s experience while Hamas held her captive.

This came just 3 months ago, with her husband having been held for a full year.

It’s hard to call what they are experiencing “joy” — but I know it is.

And it’s likewise strange to describe it as a “win” — though, that too, is true.

Our wildest imaginings can not fathom what it must have been like to be held, mostly underground, by a group of people who consider your life nothing, and who consider their taking of your freedom even less of a concern that that.

Let us thank God for this good news, and pray all goes well this weekend as the prisoner exchange goes forward.

I keep glancing up at the main picture I chose for this story while writing — Keith Siegel, smiling, boonie hat… and a pile of grandkids on an adventure with Grandpa floating down the river.

And I keep finding myself praying that God would give that picture back to Keith, once more.

That He would see fit to give Aviva her husband, once again.

And that these kids would know the joy once again captured in that picture.

I pray that God will let this family be whole again, in spite of the evil they have endured.  Changed, but whole.

And then, let the others come home.  Fifteen months is a long way to be away from your family.

It is time for them to come home.  All of them.  Now.