Hamas captivity survivor Aviva Siegel delivered a powerful speech today, opening the General Assembly at the JFNA Conference in Washington D.C. “I’m shouting aloud for Keith, for the girls I was with and for the others hostages who are still there. We need Keith back, we need all of them back,” she declared. Aviva and her husband Keith, an American-Israeli citizen, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the October 7th attack. While she was released after 51 days in Hamas captivity, Keith remains held captive.
Aviva in her address to the conference said that: “Thank you everybody, thank you for everything, everything that you doing for us. I feel it in my heart. I can’t wait for Keith to come home and for me to tell him what’s happening in this world. I’m shouting aloud for Keith, I’m shouting aloud for the girls that I was with, for the girls that are there, and all the other hostages that are there.
I come from Kibbutz Kfar Aza – 64 people that I know and love were murdered in such a brutal way. Keith and I were taken with our pyjamas. Keith is an American, he comes from North Carolina, Chapel Hill and brought up to be the most wonderful, sweet loving person on earth. He loves people and everybody loves Keith, said Aviva.
She describes her captive husband how he helped her there every minute in the darkness, he was there 100% with me all the time. And I am not there now for him. I don’t know anything about Keith, I just hope that he’s keeping strong because we need him back, and we need all the hostages back now.
The terrorists, the monsters, did everything they wanted – everything was allowed. They allowed themselves to starve us for hours and eat in front of us. They allowed themselves to drink water and not bring us any water. We had to beg and beg and beg. One of the times they took us underneath the ground, and Keith and I thought we’re going to die. I was sure I’m lucky to be alive.
After more than a couple of days, Keith looked at me while we were there alone, without any of the Hamas terrorists – they just left us there with no water and no food. It was the three of us – Keith and I and another girl. Keith looked at me while you could hardly breathe and he said “Aviva, I feel like I can’t breathe” and he was like this, just like I felt. I looked at Keith and I said “Keith, just lie down and try and breathe.” So that’s what we did and my mind was going – who’s gonna die first, I don’t wanna see Keith dead, and all I wanted is to die before Keith.
There were so many moments that I was sure that I’m going to die there, and there’s so many moments that I wanted to die. So it was easy for them because I was there and I saw everything – to touch the girls when they wanted to, to beat them when they felt like it. To take a little girl that’s 8 years old and connect her finger at a vet without putting any anesthetic in her finger. To treat an old lady, Elma, 84 years old, give her two dates a day – she came home with a body temperature of 28 degrees because they are allowed to do that.
And Hersh and the six hostages that came back in such bad conditions – isn’t that enough to wake up the world? I want Keith, my Keith, back home alive. I want all the hostages to come back to the families. All I’ve been doing was trying to bring them back. Now is the time for me to ask you to help – I’m begging because I want Keith home with us. I want to say that the evil cannot win, the good has to win in the whole world. And we all need to do it together and be strong enough that it’ll happen,” Aviva concluded.