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Mother of Hamas Hostage, US Citizen Keith Siegel Dies: ‘Couldn’t Say Goodbye’
A view of a banner depicting Keith Siegel, right, who is a dual US citizen seized during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and taken hostage into Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, is seen with other images of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
The mother of Keith Siegel, an American-Israeli who has been held hostage by Hamas terrorists since being abducted from his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7 last year, died on Sunday morning while her son remained in captivity.
Gladys Siegel was reportedly 97 years old and died in the United States.
Keith Siegel’s daughter, Elan, shared the news in a Facebook post on Monday.
“My father’s mother passed away and my father couldn’t say goodbye to her because he has been a hostage by Hamas for over a year,” Elan wrote in the Facebook post. She then described the harrowing ordeal her 65-year-old father, who is a US citizen, faced when he was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, during the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack across southern Israel. She also expressed frustration regarding the failure to secure a hostage deal to free her father.
“My father was taken from his home by terrorists about twenty years old and is in dark tunnels, severe hunger and emotional and physical abuse about an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv,” she said. “He’s in the scariest hole in the world and you just let him stay there. They’re not bringing him home. My father couldn’t come to say goodbye to his mother who will never be able to return.”
“My father, a man who has done all his life nothing but good,” she added. “Who believes in the good and loves a person … Dad won’t be able to stand with us tomorrow at the cemetery, he won’t be able to say goodbye to the woman who raised him and loved him all his life. A violent and murderous terrorist organization writes our lives from the Gaza Strip to the Great United States, And the world is silent.”
Elan’s Facebook post was published hours after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened Hamas, saying there will be “hell to pay” if the US-designated terrorist organization does not release the remaining hostages by the time he returns to office on Jan. 20.
Roughly 1,200 people were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their massacre in southern Israel, and 251 individuals were taken as hostages. Currently, 101 hostages remain in Gaza, 97 of whom were abducted during the Oct. 7 onslaught. At least 35 of those still in captivity have been confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces, according to Israeli media.
From Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a community of 1,000 people, 62 individuals were murdered and 19 were taken captive.
Hamas released a video in April that showed Keith appearing to speak under duress, pleading for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate a hostage release deal with Hamas. After the release of the video, Elan said, “Seeing my father today only emphasizes to all of us how much we must reach a deal as soon as possible and bring everyone home. I demand that the leaders of this country watch this video and see [our] father crying out for help.”
Keith’s wife, Aviva, was also taken hostage on Oct. 7. She was released as part of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in November 2023 after 51 days in captivity.
Over the weekend, Hamas released a propaganda video showing another American-Israeli hostage, Edan Alexander. Then on Monday, the IDF announced that a third American-Israeli hostage, Omer Neutra, who had previously been thought to be alive, was killed on Oct. 7 and his body is being held in Gaza.
Hamas is still holding the bodies of three other Israeli-American dual nationals, and three believed to be alive.
The post Mother of Hamas Hostage, US Citizen Keith Siegel Dies: ‘Couldn’t Say Goodbye’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.