Freed Israeli hostage describes capture by Hamas, says her husband is still being held captive

Avivo Siegel

Thank you so much for speaking with us

Here on Wral we know you are in Washington DC

as we speak

What has brought you back to the US Capitol We

we came here Keith is an American

He's 65 years old

He was born and raised in North Carolina and we

came here because we need Biden and everybody to help

us get Keith out of Gaza

We are coming up on a year since you and

Keith and the other hostages were taken into captivity

The US government has been working with numerous countries to

try to get a cease fire deal so that the

hostages can be released

That hasn't happened yet

What do you want to hear from the American government

I want to hear that the deal that's on the

table will come come true and that Keith will come

home with all the hostages

There's 101 hostages left in Gaza and they need to

come back

So that's what I want to hear

But I do know that the Hamas is responsible taking

Keith and I with our pajamas from our house and

kidnapping us in a very brutal way

And they it's their responsibility to bring Keith back home

I wanna go back to that time

Uh October 7th and as well uh your time in

captivity and the day in November when you were told

that you're being released but your husband Keith is not

that must have been excruciating aviva

Yes to say goodbye to Keith

I didn't know if I'll ever see Keith again and

I didn't know if they're going to kill me or

they're going to kill Keith

I just did not know

So that day was very very emotional

I was scared but I was scared all the time

I was threatened there that I would be killed all

the time

And dick was always above my head thinking when am

I gonna die If I'm gonna die first If I'm

gonna see kid dead Uh Can you describe the conditions

the hostages are are in and and were in when

you were one of the hostages Yes six hostages 2.5

weeks ago was shot dead by Hamas

And the conditions they were in were the worst conditions

any human being should be in

They were very very thin and then Shai weighed 79

pounds and that's nothing

They had infections in their bodies and they were brutally

taken care of with bruises with blood

They didn't have any food

They were just left there alone in a in a

in a place that they couldn't even stand up straight

because it was so narrow

And I was in those same conditions I nearly died

underneath the ground

One of the times they took us underneath the ground

it was 40 m underneath the ground

And Keith and I were sure that we're going to

die

All we did is lay down on the floor on

a filthy dirty mattress and try to to breathe

And Keith looked at me and he said that he

feels that he does not have any oxygen

He was like and I was like that too

And I just told kids just lie down and try

and read and everything in our mind just went that

we're going to die soon

It's hard to hear that knowing that this is we're

coming up on a year that over 100 hostages are

still in those conditions

A year spent living like that including Key KK an

American citizen citizen and hers was American and he was

killed in such a brutal way

We've gotten so close to Hirsch's family to Rachel and

John and it just broke my heart what they did

to her

And I'm scared all the time that something similar will

happen to kit the conditions

They were so bad

We used to starve while they didn't while they ate

in front of us and they didn't give us any

water to drink

We weren't allowed to move our body

We want to understand and we had to lay down

most of the time and the only human right that

we had if we lie on our stomach or on

our side because everything was taken away

We had to say all the time that everything's ok

In Arabic we had to pick up Tam up and

say Tamam

Tamam is ok while nothing was ok

There I was scared I was threatened and one of

the worst things for me was to seek him to

seek it the way they treated him in such a

brutal way

He just did not the the he did he shouldn't

have gone through something like that

He's 65 years old

He's the most gentle sweet person in earth

And we behaved all the time

I used to ask myself how come they behave to

us like they do while we're behaving but we were

threatened all the time

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been digging his heels

in

What will it take for him to relent and get

the hostages home I'm not a politician and I'm not

dealing with politics

I'm just Keith's wife that wants Keith home and I

want him home now and I want him home alive

and I'm just praying that Bibi will be strong enough

to bring them home

But I do know that Hamas needs to take responsibility

for everything they're doing to the hostages because what they're

doing is the worst thing

Do you believe they're also responsible for what's happening to

Palestinians

I mean there's so much suffering going on

I wanna I wanna understand what it's like for you

to cope with being both a victim of and a

witness to so much suffering

Yes I say that Keith and I are peacemakers and

we just want people to enjoy life

Everybody gets one chance in this world to live

And when I think about Palestinians women in Gaza having

babies in tense it breaks my heart and to see

them and hear that they're suffering and that nobody in

the world is even looking on what's happening there and

we can't let the evil win in this world

Hm

So as we approach October 7th Aviva what's your focus

Where where do you what do you what do you

do every day I know you told your husband when

you were leaving captivity that you would be brave for

him and you needed him to be brave for you

Um II I can't imagine what it's like for you

to to know we're coming up on a year

Yes it's my heart is broken up

I think about kids all the time

I mean guys are with kids also because of what

I went through and with the girls that had been

tortured and touched and beaten up into pieces

I'm broken up into pieces

My family is all we do is talk to anybody

that will listen to us and beg we're begging for

help

We need help to bring Keith and the hostages back

Last question for you Aviva do you hope for a

ceasefire deal I think that's the only way that the

hostages will come home

It has to happen

I'm against wars I'm against killing

And I think that if we look at history history

could be really really mean and bad and we need

it to stop as soon as possible

Aviva Segal

I wish you and Keith all the very best

Uh Thank you for taking the time

I just want to tell everybody that Keith's mom is

97 years old and he's waiting to come home and

give you a hug and she's waiting for him and

I pray every day that that people will come home

and he'll be able to come home to North Carolina

to hug his mom

Thank you very much