NC native Keith Siegel among hostages released by Hamas
Chapel Hill native Keith Siegel walked across a stage to freedom Saturday in Gaza City after 484 days in Hamas captivity.
An Associated Press video showed armed Hamas militants posing with Siegel in front of a sweeping view of ocean and bombed-out buildings before handing him over to the Red Cross. Siegel, gaunt and wearing a black baseball cap, waved to the crowd and cameras.
His family, gathered at a home in Kibbutz Gezer north of the Gaza Strip, clapped and cheered at the sight.
The celebration had already begun Friday, as joy and excitement filled newspaper headlines and social media posts Friday at the news that Siegel would be among the hostages to be released.
“Father is on the list!” Siegel’s wife, Aviva Siegel, exclaimed in a video as she hugged her daughter. The video, posted by the Israeli-language newspaper Israel Hayom, was taken by Siegel’s daughter Shir Siegel on the streets of Israel.
Siegel, 65, and two more hostages released Saturday — Ofer Calderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35 — were among 251 people kidnapped from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Siegel’s wife Aviva Siegel was also taken, but she was released 51 days later.
Alon Tal, a Durham native who grew up with Siegel and is a former Knesset lawmaker living in Israel, expressed hope that the ceasefire could lead to a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people
He is also grateful to American media for keeping attention on Siegel’s plight, Tal told The News & Observer, and for U.S. leadership on both sides of the aisle in helping to negotiate for the hostages’ release.
“I want to express gratitude as an Israeli and American to President Biden who prioritized it and then the Trump team that came in and worked together, and we can only hope that this kind of bipartisan cooperation will continue in many other areas where there is such a pressing and compelling public interest in working together,” Tal said.
Grief and prayers since Oct. 7
The Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 killed another 1,200 people, launching the latest war between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that the United States considers a terrorist organization.
Over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured, the Gaza Health Ministry reports.
The current ceasefire started Jan. 19 with Hamas agreeing to return 33 hostages and Israel to release over 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has released over a dozen hostages so far, and on Monday, Israeli officials said eight of the remaining hostages were killed.
Negotiations are continuing, with more hostage releases possible in the coming weeks.
The wait has been “complete anguish for the families of the hostages, and we have been praying every day for the safe release of all of the hostages, including Keith Siegel,” Rabbi Rachel Posner, interim rabbi at Beth El Synagogue in Durham, told The N&O this week.
“It’s very difficult, especially for the Jewish community in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. We feel not just for Keith, but for all the hostages and all the people in the region,” Posner said. “We’re also grieving for the Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering and for all the Israelis who have suffered this incredible trauma.”
Beth El and the local Jewish community see the hostages as their extended family, and knowing that Siegel is there has had a deep impact, Posner said.
“Every Shabbat, every Saturday, we say a prayer for healing, and there is always someone in our congregation who grew up with Keith who says Keith’s name out loud,” she said.
Mother did not know son was hostage
Siegel has American and Israeli citizenship and grew up attending Beth El, where his mother was a community “matriarch,” Posner said. Gladys Siegel, who died in December at age 97, was never told that her son was a hostage because of her age.
“She was just a beloved member of our community and a huge, huge force for good … as well as Jewish life in Durham and Chapel Hill,” Posner said, noting her volunteer work with hunger relief groups and other synagogue and social service programs.
“She was just a really important person to us at Beth El, and Keith was her baby,” she said.
Keith Siegel has always been a strong, good-hearted person, radiating a sense of calm that made people stop and listen when he spoke, Tal said. That may have “served him well during what must have been the most unbearable challenge you can imagine,” he said.
“He always had a certain calm about him, a big smile on his face, and every time I ever saw him, we always had a great time and always had plenty to talk about,” said Tal, who is currently a visiting professor at Stanford University in California.
“Nobody would ever say something bad about Keith,” he said.
Siegel attended Carolina Friends School in Durham and met Aviva, a native of South Africa, after moving to Israel in his 20s. He worked as an occupational therapist, and she, as a preschool teacher, living in the Kfar Aza settlement near the Gaza border fence for 40 years. They have four children and five grandchildren.
Hamas-led militants kidnapped the Siegels on Oct. 7, 2023, driving them in their own car to Gaza. Aviva Siegel was among 104 hostages freed 51 days later, forcing her to leave her husband, who had broken ribs and was shot in the hand.
Siegel’s family has pressed for the hostages to be released through the media and in meetings with Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, testimony and statements to U.S. and Israeli lawmakers, and at grassroots demonstrations.
Siegel’s family has been “indefatigable in their efforts to maintain this issue,” Tal said, “and bring Keith’s captivity and the atrocities that he has been undergoing to the public eye.”
“I’m sure that the great hug they are going to give him when he comes back will help him make a very challenging transition back to civilian life and his good life,” Tal said.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 11:22 AM.
