Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas: I won’t stop fighting for hostages

Aviva Siegel was released late last year, but her husband remains a hostage.

Aviva Siegel, an Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 and held for more than 50 days until she was freed during a temporary cease-fire, told NBC News she is determined to keep “shouting and screaming for the hostages to come home” — including her husband, Keith, who is believed to be alive.

“I have been talking about those tunnels,” Siegel told NBC News’ Lester Holt on Tuesday during a trip to New York amid the start of the United Nations General Assembly, referring to the tunnels where she was held captive before her release in November.

Lester Holt of NBC News talks with family members of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.NBC News“Keith and I nearly died in the tunnel because there was no oxygen, and I’ve been talking about it over and over and over — hard stories. But I want to just tell everybody we’re not going to stop,” she said in an interview alongside other people whose loved ones were taken in Hamas’ terrorist attack in Israel. 

“We’re going to talk, and I’m going to tell all the hard stories,” she added.

Siegel, 63, recalled some of the conditions inside the vast network of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip. She described hostages thrown to the ground on “filthy, dirty mattresses,” forbidden from speaking or moving, confined to dark spaces. She recounted the physical agony of being starved for “24 hours or even more.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-woman-kidnapped-by-hamas-fighting-for-hostages-rcna172509

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