American hostage Keith Samuel Siegel’s spouse says he’s struggling ‘cruelest factor on Earth’

She spent 51 days in Gaza as a hostage begging for meals and water from her merciless captors, however the nightmare didn’t finish when Aviva Siegel was launched as a part of a hostage deal final yr.

Though free for practically a yr, the 63-year-old nonetheless feels trapped realizing her husband, Israeli-American Keith Samuel Siegel, 65, stays struggling in Hamas’ cramped tunnels with little oxygen, meals or water.

“It’s simply merciless to assume that he’s in such horrible situations for thus lengthy,” Aviva instructed The Put up. “What they’re going by means of is the cruelest factor on Earth.”

Aviva had devoted her life to demanding motion from President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free her husband of 43 years — who’s a instructor initially from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The pair had been kidnapped from their house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel when Hamas terrorists invaded from Gaza. Kfar Aza noticed among the most horrific violence of the invasion — with victims discovered burned and beheaded and kids murdered alongside their dad and mom.

The pissed off grandmother of 5 says she would have fairly died than be saved ready to see her husband once more.

When she was along with Keith inside Hamas’ sprawling tunnel community, Aviva recalled the pressure they suffered as their captor barely gave them sufficient meals or water to maintain them alive.

By the point she was launched final November, Aviva stated she had misplaced 22 kilos since she was taken hostage on Oct. 7, with Keith struggling an analogous toll as evidenced by a photograph Hamas launched of him in April.

“Keith misplaced lots of weight once I was with him,” Aviva stated. “Within the picture in April, you might see that every one his bones had been out.

“He regarded so skinny, so pale,” she added, noting that her husband appeared 20 years older than he really was.

She confused that due to his age, Keith was coping with again and physique pains from being pressured to remain nonetheless contained in the tunnels with out a probability for any train, a difficulty that has doubtless worsened after a yr in captivity.

She additionally nervous about how a lot air Keith was getting. She beforehand instructed reporters that at the least as soon as they practically suffocated to dying inside a Hamas tunnel.

However Aviva’s biggest concern is that after she was launched, Hamas may have chosen to maneuver Keith to a unique location the place he’s alone with out a single soul to consolation him.

“If I’d simply know that Keith has bought any individual to be with… any individual to consolation him, simply any individual to take a look at, it will make me just a little bit calmer. However we don’t know something,” she lamented. 

The ideas of Keith’s struggling, coupled along with her personal nightmares of Oct. 7 and captivity, hold Aviva awake at evening.

She stated the prospect of spending the Oct. 7 anniversary with out her husband is insufferable — regardless of being comforted by the remainder of her household.

Aviva, nevertheless, has discovered some aid with the households of the opposite 96 individuals who stay captive in Gaza, with Tel Aviv house to just about day by day protests towards the federal government for its alleged failure to safe the hostages.

However with a yr passing since they had been promised their family members’ return, Aviva has needed to endure hostage alternate offers come and go with out an settlement as Israel and Hamas accuse the opposite of attempting to vary the phrases of the cease-fire.

Now she stated she’s had sufficient and plans to deal with Biden and Netanyahu straight the subsequent probability she will get to talk with them once more.

“I simply can’t take it anymore,” she stated. “I’ve determined the subsequent factor I need to do is ask Benjamin Netanyahu, ask Biden, how am I presupposed to handle it realizing that Keith is there?”