Three hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023 have been freed by Hamas on Saturday after 484 days in captivity as the ceasefire deal continues to hold and advance.
They were let go in a ceremony in Gaza's Khan Younis, which has become a familiar scene - set up almost like a 'graduation' but with anti-Israeli banners set up behind the stage. They were released to the International Red Cross and then went back to Israel at the Gaza City port. Among the freed was 65-year old American-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel, as well as Ofer Calderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35.
Various reports and eyewitnesses commented on Siegel's significant weight loss during the lengthy captivity. But all hostages appeared generally in good health, and the handover took place without the chaos of the Thursday freeing of three Israelis and five Thai nationals.
Siegel is the first hostage with American citizenship to have been freed during this current ceasefire. He's been living in Israel for four decades, and is originally from North Carolina. There were half a dozen dual US-Israeli nationals taken on Oct.7, as CBS reviews:
It is believed that at least two of the six American hostages still held in Gaza are alive — Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey. Four other Americans are believed to have been killed in captivity.
Siegel's wife Aviva was also taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, but was released in an earlier hostage and prisoner swap in November 2023.
Speaking to CBS News about a year after her release, Aviva Siegel said there were moments as Hamas militants forced her and her husband through tunnels under the Gaza Strip that they felt "sure we were going to die."
Strangely, Hamas has been issuing "gift bags" to each freed hostage, apparently containing photographs of the duration of their detention in Gaza.
The Times of Israel describes as follows:
Dual US-Israeli national Siegel was handed over at Gaza City’s port, paraded on a stage overlooking the sea as he carried two of the “gift bags” forced on the hostages by the terror group. According to the Walla news site, the second bag was for his wife Aviva, freed by Hamas in November 2023.
This latest, third round of exchanges included 183 Palestinians set free who were held in Israeli prisons. They returned to Gaza Strip and the West bank to scenes of jubilation.
Israel has been trying to prohibit and crackdown on these large Palestinian celebrations. Al Jazeera has meanwhile written that "As Palestinians are released from Israeli prisons as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, many show signs of severe beatings inflicted before their release, a prisoner rights group says."