“I was held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, my husband has been held hostage for 11 months and he still doesn’t know that our son survived”

From Tel Aviv.- “What happened on October 7 is something that should not happen anywhere on the planet. And everyone has to agree that this kind of thing cannot happen,” he says firmly. Aviva Siegel, 62, was held hostage for 51 days in Gaza. Her husband Keith, 64, remains held captive by Hamas in the Strip.

Aviva says that she and her husband were taken out of the safe room in their home in the Kibbutz Kfar Aza south of Israel the morning of the massacre. That day, thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, razed entire communities, killed babies, elderly people, raped women, burned people alive and took more than 250 kidnapped people to the Gaza Strip.

She and her husband were taken away by 15 terrorists in their pajamas in the most violent way possible. “We didn’t know what was happening, we saw shells falling everywhere, we heard gunshots and people being killed.”

In his community, 64 people were killed and 19 were kidnapped. She and her husband were the only elderly people taken from there by the terrorists. “My son was in the kibbutz that day in another house, we knew he was hiding, but when they took us we were already convinced that they had killed him, because he wrote to us saying that they were inside his house and that he heard people speaking Arabic.”

Aviva She was released after 51 days of captivity in the only agreement between Hamas and Israel to date. Only when he regained physical freedom —“In my mind I am still in Gaza”— learned that his son had been saved. But Keith is still kidnapped and doesn’t know that our son survived.” he says, and this is the first of many times that he breaks down during the conversation.

He speaks slowly and calmly, but very clearly. “I was there, I know what the kidnapped people continue to go through.”

After being taken from their home, they were put in a car and taken to Gaza.. Already in Palestinian territories they entered a house and only took four steps until they met a tunnel where they were forced to enter. “I will never forget the terrorist’s face smiling at me from below. He looked like he was having the party of his life, and my husband and I were shaking.”

Keith arrived brutally beaten at the Strip. “They threw him to the ground, broke his ribs and injured his arm,” Aviva says. In the tunnel they met a young man, a neighbor from their community. “His legs were covered in blood and full of glass.” They also saw a woman with her three children, a family of 100,000 people. Kfar Aza “There was the woman and three children, one aged 9, another aged 11 and a teenager aged 17. The woman told me that her eldest daughter had been killed. I tried to comfort her, telling her that perhaps an ambulance had arrived and saved her, but she told me no, that she had seen how they had shot her in the head.” The father of that family had also been killed. “The three children saw absolutely everything.”

During the 51 days that Aviva was held hostage in Gaza, She and her husband were moved 13 times. One of those times, she was held hostage with Keith and another, alone in a tunnel where they were left without air for several days, without water or food. “We got to a point where we lay down and couldn’t move. Our only goal was to breathe. At one point Keith started to choke and so did I,” Aviva says. “I was convinced that I was going to die there and all I could think was: ‘I hope I die before my husband.’”

“After a few days, a terrorist came and made us climb 40 metres. I was lucky to have the strength to climb up. When we came out, we got some air and thought we were lucky, but no… They took us to a house where we found the cruelest terrorists there are, the worst there are.” Aviva says that they were forced to lie down from 5am to 10am without being able to move at all. They were not given anything to eat. “They ate in front of us on purpose.”

There were more female hostages there, young girls, according to her story. Over time, they began to receive half a piece of old pita bread that she rationed because she did not know if they would give her anything to eat again.

There, he reveals, everything was forbidden. “It was forbidden to feel, it was forbidden to move, it was forbidden to speak, it was forbidden to communicate. “They got very nervous around us. When I cried, I covered my face with my arm so they couldn’t see me.”

In that house where they had her kidnapped saw atrocious abuses. “One day, one of the girls went to the bathroom and when she came back I saw on her face that something had happened to her. I got up to hug her even though it was forbidden and the terrorist got very angry, he got very nervous. We spent hours in silence because we knew something had happened and She later told us that the terrorist had touched her in the bathroom. “I wanted to shout at the terrorist but I couldn’t do anything.”

“In 51 days we bathed four times. And When the girls bathed, they would leave the door open and watch them bathing. They would dress the young women in very tight clothes to watch them. Those girls are still there. “He says with horror in his eyes.

The abuse was not only against women. “They took my husband to bathe and shaved him all over to make him look like an Arab. But they also shaved his armpits and down there (points to his genitals). When he came back he wanted to cry, he was completely ashamed, humiliated. They were just standing there making fun of him.”

One day, the terrorists attacked a young hostage, dressing her in Arab clothes and covering her with a blanket: “One of them came in with a stick and started beating her. He threatened us with a whip. We are trembling because of what they were doing to that girl.”

Aviva describes how they were dehumanized, everything taken from them. “I couldn’t defend anyone there, I didn’t have the ability to defend any of the people who were there. All we could do was exchange glances.”

Aviva lost 10 kilos during his captivity. “When I returned to the country I didn’t have the strength to walk, I had to lean on someone. I also had inflammation in my stomach, it took me a month and a half to be able to eat like any other human being and five months to stabilize my blood situation.”

One day last November, almost 10 months ago, he was told to prepare himself, that he was returning to Israel. He tried to refuse. “I’m going with my husband,” she said, but they didn’t let her. They had just moved and Keith had been taken to another room with his eyes covered, but she needed to talk to him, to hug him. When they found him, Keith was lying on a thin mat, all dirty. Aviva bent down and said, “Be strong for me.” That was the last time she saw him. That was their last conversation.

Aviva is back physically but feels like she is still in Gaza. “I can’t stop thinking about the Fringe I think all the time about my husband, about the girls who are still there.” And she adds: “I am like a dead person, sad. But I have children, grandchildren and I will be strong, I will not give in.”