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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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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.