‘Scared to death’: Wife of Hamas hostage from North Carolina begs Congress for help

Aviva Siegel remembers the torture of being held by Hamas in Gaza after they captured her and her husband, Keith, at their kibbutz in Israel.

She remembers her hunger.

She remembers her thirst.

She remembers not knowing if there was enough oxygen in the underground tunnels for her to take her next breath.

She remembers begging to talk.

She remembers begging to stand.

She remembers begging to be allowed to move her body.

And she knows Keith, a Chapel Hill native, is begging Hamas to release him so he can be reunited with his wife.

Keith and Aviva Siegel were driving together when they were captured, on Oct. 7, by the Palestinian militant group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States. That day Hamas brutally attacked Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostage.

Hamas released Aviva during a humanitarian cease-fire in November, but her husband remains captive, and she told a room of lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday she hopes he is still alive.

“I hope that one day he will be able to see the sun and breathe fresh air,” she said.

She told McClatchy exclusively that Keith told her before her release that one of the first things he wants to do after he leaves Gaza is come back to North Carolina and visit his mother, who, because of her age, hasn’t been told about his captivity.

Aviva has said in past overseas interviews that she witnessed sexual assaults of another woman. She said Wednesday that no woman should be touched without her permission and no human should go through the torture the hostages have.

She added that during her 51 days in captivity there were days she wanted Hamas “to kill me.”

And she said though her body left the tunnels in November, her soul remains with Keith.

“I still feel like I’m in those dark, scary tunnels,” Siegel said. “I’m scared to death.”

Siegel was one of three family members of hostages that remain in Gaza who came to Washington seeking help. A larger group, including Siegel, met with Biden administration officials at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

Siegel was the only one of Wednesday’s group with firsthand experience of the trauma faced by the hostages.

Visiting Israel

Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro, and a Jew who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, spearheaded Wednesday’s news conference calling for more to be done to free the hostages.

Manning just returned from a congressional delegation trip led by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Israel where they toured Siegel’s kibbutz, Kfar Aza.

“We saw the cruelty of the savagery of the destruction,” Manning said. “Aviva asked me if I saw her home. I saw what was left of her home and was was left of this peaceful kibbutz full of people who were hoping for a better future with the Palestinian people. And what we saw was beyond explanation.”

Manning said, despite reading for months about the devastation in Israel, the depth of the destruction there is beyond understanding unless you’re standing within it.

Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, said she will never unsee what they witnessed n the Kibbutz Re’im of the aftermath of the Nova Music Festival.

“That site on the road leading towards it has burn marks in places along the road where cars were with people in them,” Wasserman Schultz said. “People were burned alive on that spot. You walk into the festival site and there were hundreds and hundreds of markers where beautiful, lovely, young people were murdered in cold blood.”

The lawmaker, who is also Jewish, said her daughter, only two months earlier, returned from a summer in Israel. Two weeks ago, she was looking at the devastation that affected 20-somethings around her daughter’s age.

The concert

Both Romi Gonen, 23, and Or Levy, 33, were among those at the concert who were captured by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Their siblings, Yarden Gonen and Michael Levy, joined Siegel in sharing the devastation visited on their families the past six months.

Yarden said Romi witnessed the murder of her best friend, was shot in the arm and was then captured after hours of hiding. Her sister was on the phone with her through those horrific moments and heard everything.

Michael said Or witnessed his wife’s murder before being taken hostage. The couple has a 2-year-old son.

Michael offered details of everything Or has missed while the world carried on without him and how it has affected their family.

His son’s new world — living with grandparents, going back to preschool and learning new words.

Basketball playoffs.

His wife’s funeral.

Their mother cries herself to sleep nightly. Their father stopped speaking after Or went missing.

“Six months ago was the worst day of our lives,” Michael said. “Or was kidnapped by monsters after watching his soulmate being killed in front of him.”

Michael said he promised his parents he would bring Or home, and he pleaded with lawmakers to help him keep his word.

“We’re in D.C. to say enough,” Michael said. “”The U.S. and the world should tell Hamas to let them go. Let my brother come home.”

Yarden delivered a similar message to lawmakers, saying her sister went to the concert to celebrate love, peace, happiness and young friendship.

Yarden said she read the testimony of a woman who tried resisting rape at gunpoint by members of Hamas. She described torture in graphic details.

She called the testimony her worst nightmare come to life, and now fears the unthinkable might be happening to her sister.

“The whole world should be protesting by now,” Yarden said. “This is not just an Israeli story. In those dark, suffocating tunnels there are civilians from an additional 20 countries: 133 hostages. Eight of them are American. Ninety of them are women.”

Lawmakers react

Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from Snow Hill, and the only other North Carolina lawmaker in the room, said Siegel, Gonen and Levy put faces to the reality of what’s happening with Hamas.

The U.S. needs to provide its allies with the resources they need to defend themselves and stand up to Hamas, he said, adding, “I will not rest until Keith Siegel is released.”

Wasserman Schultz said Congress’s top priority should be providing for the safety, security and integrity of the American people. World leaders must call on Hamas to lay down their arms and renounce violence and their sworn commitment to destroy Israel and the Jews., she said.

Manning told McClatchy that Congress needs to to apply more financial penalties and put more pressure on Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and other Arab countries to exert influence over Hamas.

She and the co-chairs of both the House and Senate Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism introduced a comprehensive bill Wednesday morning that, among other things, would create a national coordinator to counter antisemitism.

Across the Capitol, Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican from Davie County, urged his colleagues to pass a bill to terminate Qatar’s major non-NATO ally status after the country’s leaders failed to press Hamas to release the hostages.

Budd has been among the state’s leaders pushing for the release of Keith and the other hostages.

The lawmakers did not take questions at the end of Wednesday’s news conference and did not address Israel’s response to Hamas or funding for Israel. The Washington Post reported last week that Israel has received more U.S. funding than any other country since World War II, but the relationship between the two countries has frayed over Israel’s response to Hamas and because of U.S. weapons being used in that response.

Siegel finished her own statements at the Capitol on Wednesday “begging” for help from Congress.

“We need help,” she said. “Keith needs your help. One hundred thirty-three people are now screaming for your help. You have to bring him home today.”