The family of " target="_blank" rel="">Keith Siegel, one of the six hostages in Hamas captivity who has American citizenship, announced the passing of his mother in a post on Facebook on Tuesday.
“My grandmother passed away yesterday morning. My father’s mother passed away, and my father couldn’t say goodbye to her because he has been a hostage of Hamas for over a year.
My father was taken from his home by 20-year-old terrorists and is in dark tunnels, [facing] severe hunger and emotional and physical abuse about an hour drive from Tel Aviv,” Keith’s daughter, Elan, said in the post.
“An hour’s drive from the secure bunker in the Kirya [military headquarters,] he’s being held in the scariest hole in the world, and they’re simply letting him stay there. They’re not bringing him home,” she continued.
“My father couldn’t come to say goodbye to his mother, who will never be able to return. My father is a man who has done nothing but good his whole life, who believes in good and loves people. My dad is 65 years old.
“Dad won’t be able to stand with us tomorrow at the cemetery; he won’t be able to say goodbye to the woman who raised him and loved him his whole life. A violent and murderous terrorist organization dictates our lives from the Gaza Strip to the powerful United States, and the world is silent,” she concluded.
Hostage video
Hamas published a video of Siegel in April with another hostage, Omri Miran.
Siegel was abducted from his home in Kfar Aza together with his wife Aviva, who was released during the ceasefire in November 2023.
Siegel is one of six hostages with American citizenship. On Monday, the IDF confirmed that fellow American hostage Omer Neutra was killed on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken by Hamas to Gaza.