Hamas on Friday announced that U.S.-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel along with Israelis Ofer Kalderonand Yarden Bibas will be the next hostages released after a release of hostages that was criticized by Israel earlier this week. Photo by Anas Deeb/UPI |
License Photo
Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Hamas announced dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel is one of three hostages to be released Saturday as part of the initial phase of its cease-fire and hostage-prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.
Siegel's name along with Israelis Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35, was confirmed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Friday.
"The Hostages Families Forum welcomes the joyous news regarding the expected release of Keith Siegel, Yardan Bibas, and Ofer Kalderon after 484 days in Hamas captivity.
"We have both the sacred duty and moral right to bring all our brothers and sisters home. We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home, down to the last one -- the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial," the group said.
But there was no news on two other Americans, Edan Alexander, 20, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, both believed to be alive in Hamas captivity in Gaza, or the remains of Itay Chen, 19, Omer Neutra, 21, and husband and wife Gadi Haggai, 73, and Judith Weinstein, 70 who were all believed to have perished in the Oct. 7 attacks.
The fourth hostage-prisoner exchange since the cease-fire came into effect Jan. 19 is expected to see Israel release 90 Palestinian prisoners, according to Hamas' Prisoners' Media Office which said that nine had been serving life sentences and 81 long sentences.
North Carolina native Siegel, 65, who moved to Israel 40 years ago, was taken hostage from his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with his wife Aviva Siegel, but she was released after 53 days during the first short-lived cease-fire in November of that year.
Siegel was last seen in a Hamas video released in April in which he reassured his family that he was doing okay.
Aviva Siegel said in a TV interview in September that she and Keith nearly died in the tunnels beneath Gaza where they were held because they were unable to breathe.
Bibas was taken hostage along with his wife Shiri and their two sons, Kfir and Ariel, who would now be aged two and five.
The family are among the 33 hostages slated to be released in the first six-week phase of the deal but Hamas announced during the November 2023 pause that saw 105 hostages freed that Shiri Bibas and the two children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israel Defense Forces eventually conceded in February that the three were most likely dead.
"Based on the information available to us, we are very concerned and worried about the condition and well-being of Shiri and the children," IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told a news briefing at the time.
Still, Ofri Bibas-Levy, who is the aunt of Kfir and Ariel, told NBC she was clinging to hope she would see Shiri and the children alive again, notwithstanding "the condition the hostages are being kept in."
Kalderon was abducted from a kibbutz with his two children, who were released in the pause in the fighting in November 2023, and two cousins both of whom are dead.
His cousin, Jason Greenberg told U.S. television earlier this month he did not know if Kalderon had survived.
"It's hard to imagine anybody being able to endure that long and even come back the same person. If he comes back alive, that's a miracle," he said.
Saturday's exchange comes after three Israelis, including a 20-year-old woman soldier, and five Thai nationals were released Thursday and four female soldiers on Saturday in exchange for Israel freeing 310 Palestinians from its prisons.
The first batch of three female civilian hostages -- Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were released Jan. 19, on the morning the cease-fire agreement brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt came into effect.
Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners the following day.