“We thought Israel would be the best place for Jews — a safe place.”
For 63-year-old Aviva Siegel, October 7, 2023 started off not unlike many others: with sirens piercing the early morning calm. “At half-past six in the morning, there was an alarm” indicating an incoming rocket, she told Katie Couric Media. “We didn’t think anything would be special because we were used to it.” Living in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, she’d heard and seen rockets fly overhead for many years.
Siegel and her husband of more than 43 years, Keith, ran to their shelter, like they always did. They didn’t know at the time that about 70 Hamas militants had broken through a fence and stormed onto the kibbutz, killing at least 52 people and burning down homes. They took Aviva, Keith, and other Kfar Aza residents hostage and brought them back to Gaza. Siegel was released after 51 days in captivity as part of the first and only hostage deal between Israel and Hamas; her husband Keith remains in captivity.
One year after that horrific attack, Siegel continues to tell her unimaginably painful story so that people don’t forget that for many hostages and their families, this tragedy is still ongoing. “I don’t feel strong at all, but I’ve got the strength to stand up and scream for Keith, for all the hostages that are still [in Gaza], and the hostages that were killed.”
