A GRANDAD tortured and abused by Hamas terrorists while held hostage for 484 days has told of the one thing that will haunt him forever.
Keith Siegel and his wife Aviva were brutally kidnapped from kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023.
keith & aviva siegelKeith Siegel was held hostage for 484 days[/caption]
keith & aviva siegelThe moment Keith was reunited with his family, including wife Aviva, centre[/caption]
AFPAviva Siegel said she cannot get her life back on track until the remaining hostages are freed[/caption]
Between 10 and 15 vicious, armed Hamas terrorists broke into their home, dragging them out of their safe room at gunpoint.
Both were injured as the brutes forced the couple to take them to their car, which they used to drive the terrified pair across the border.
Keith and Aviva, who have been married for more than 40 years and share four children, were then pushed into an extremely cramped tunnel for three days.
Before Aviva’s release 51 days later, they were moved 13 times, while Keith was relocated 33 times before he was freed earlier this year.
Speaking of her harrowing experience in captivity, Aviva said: “Most of the time, I just wanted to die.
“It was too much for me, a human being, going through what I went through and to see what the Hamas terrorists did to Keith and the girls [other hostages]”.
American-Israeli Keith, 65, spent a shocking 484 days in captivity before he was finally released on February 1.
At the Israeli Embassy in London yesterday, brave Keith recounted his agonising experience.
“I was held for 484 days, out of which six months I was alone,” he said.
“I was locked up in a room by myself. I was disconnected totally from any media and I had no idea what was going on a lot of the time.
“Terrorists kicked me, spat on me and cursed me for no reason.
“I was threatened with death several times. I had guns pointed at me, rifles and pistols. And they threatened to kill me.
“I said nothing. I was instructed to lie down on the floor on my back, and that’s what I did.”
But despite his horrifying ordeal at the hands of merciless Hamas terrorists, the dad said it was their treatment of a female hostage that disturbs him the most.
Keith added: ” I witnessed a woman being tortured. And when I say torture, I say it in a literal sense.
“This woman, they had tied her hands together at her wrists. They had tied her feet together at her ankles.
“They had covered her face with tape. They had put her down on her back on the floor.
“They called me to come into this room where the woman was lying, and there were three terrorists in the room.
“Two of them were taking turns beating her with a rod. And the third one was holding a metal rod with a sharp pointed end, which he put on her forehead.
keith & aviva siegelThe couple were abducted from their home in kibbutz Kfar Aza[/caption]
keith & aviva siegelKeith and Aviva in happier times[/caption]
keith & aviva siegelThe couple share four children and five grandchildren[/caption]
“He was standing behind this woman, holding the rod and applying pressure to her forehead with the sharp end.
“It haunts me to this day.”
Aviva, meanwhile, detailed the heartbreaking toll her time in captivity continues to take on her life – which she says she can’t get back on track until the final hostages are freed.
The mum said: “One time, the Hamas terrorists took us underneath the ground and I was sure I was going to die.
“Keith looked at me and said ‘I don’t have any air’. We were left there to die.
“They didn’t care about us. Everything was taken away from us.
“There wasn’t a minute that I could say to myself okay, relax. I ahd the feeling they were going to kill me all the time or they were going to kill Keith.
“I was worried about him all the time.
“I was starving all the time. I had to beg for water. Still today, I need water next to me all the time.
“I cannot lock myself in a bathroom because I am scared after I was locked in rooms there and taken underground.”
It comes as 50 hostages dragged into Gaza on October 7 remain trapped. Israel believes at least 27 are dead.
What happened on October 7?
ON October 7 2023, militants of Hamas and other Palestinian nationalist groups launched co-ordinated armed attacks in the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel.
The perpetrators had managed to bypass Israeli defences to para-glide across the border, in what became the first invasion of the territory since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The horror coincided with the Jewish celebration of Simchat Torah, and initiated the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
A barrage of around 4,300 rockets were launched on Israel from the Gaza Strip in the early hours of October 7 before vehicles and powered paragliders crossed the border.
The Hamas fighters attacked military bases and massacred civilians in 21 communities, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Netiv Haasara, and Alumim.
The first civilian attack started at 6.29am at the Nova Music Festival site at Re’im, just three miles from Gaza.
More than 360 revellers were cut down as they desperately tried to flee.
Across October 7, an estimated 1,139 people were massacred and another 250 civilians and soldiers were taken hostage into Gaza.
Aviva and Keith, who are grieving the deaths of 64 people from their kibbutz killed during the atrocity, continue to battle for their freedom – travelling the world to campaign and share their testimonies.
“We haven’t come back to life because we worry about the hostages that are still there,” Aviva said.
“We know what they’re going through.
“We come from a community that are peacemakers and we’ve always been like that.
“We know of so many hostages… treated like they’re not human beings.
“And we are here as witnesses to tell the world that if we leave the situation to be like that and the hostages there, that means anybody in the world can do whatever they want to.
“They can rape. They can burn. They can starve. They can do whatever they want to.
“This war needs to stop and the world needs to stand for humanity.
“I can’t go back to my life. All I do is think about all these hostages that are innocent, that just need to come home.”
It comes as Donald Trump continues to push for a peace deal between Israel and Hamas – including the release of the hostages.
US Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler this week argued a deal to free the final captives is “closer than it’s ever been”.
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